Q. Tell us about your sense of the foundation's mission?

A. Back in the 1970s, a committed group of community members said, "Hawai'i is too important to lose and make it just like every place else — the idea that Hawai'i is special as a distinct and unique environment. As such, it deserves the best we have to offer." The foundation was formed around that concept. It's not just limited to buildings. It's historic objects, communities and sites relating to the history of Hawai'i. It's not about putting Hawai'i's past under glass. It's alive. It's inherently useful and meaningful to the community.

Q. The impending end of Del Monte Fresh Produce's O'ahu operation has been in the news of late, which will end a way of life that has been around for more than a century. Are issues like that of concern to the foundation?

A. That's an interesting new issue in historic preservation, the examining and understanding of cultural aspects. The plantations are a great example. That's more than a story on the changing way of life. It's also the story of the impacts on the land and what is distinctive about those lands and how much of that land we can save.

Q. How does a newcomer who has been on the job three weeks absorb all of that history and help steer the foundation at the same time?

A. Historic Hawai'i Foundation is not about a single person. As the leader of the organization, it's my responsibility to convey the passion and commitment that we have to sense of place and to Hawai'i's history, but it's also the board of directors, our members and our partner organizations. Collectively, we are advocates for Hawai'i's past and its present and its future.

Q. Are there any particular preservation bills before the current legislative session that you're involved in?

A. The Heritage Caucus was created this year by the legislators. One of the bills that Historic Hawaii Foundation was really advocating is for a tax credits program for rehabilitation of historic projects, both commercial and residential buildings that are registered state or national landmarks that have been rehabilitated to appropriate standards. It's a 25 percent tax credit of "qualified costs," not if you want to add on a great room. It's to bring your plumbing and electricity up to code, get rid of termites, that sort of thing. It's been used in 26 states so we can benefit from other experiences.

Q. What kind of pressures are there on communities undergoing changes like Chinatown and Kaka'ako?

A. Part of our challenge is to integrate the old with the new. It's striking the proper balance. Often that's a matter of design rather than use. We can still have new offices, new housing, new commercial areas coming in. What's critical is to build on the strengths of what worked in the past. What that usually means is active pedestrian areas and interest in the architecture, that there's transparency of the buildings, that it's not dominated by parking garages and blank walls. Urban design and commitment to preservation and scale needs to be part of the development from the beginning. It can't be artificial and added on as some sort of mitigating element. As these new developments are conceived, it's important to set out the values of the development. Those values need to be part of a community dialogue.

Q. Kaka'ako seems to be one of those places where these issues are especially playing out.

A. Absolutely. Many of those issues are seen in microcosm right there.

Q. Any particular upcoming projects for the foundation?

A. We have a collection of photographs and slides and documents, some of which aren't collected anywhere else. Right now they're kind of in manila folders and aren't really being taken care of the way they should be. We have a new project classifying, cataloging and preserving those and then digitizing them to have sort of an online catalog. There will be lots of work for volunteers and of course we'll train them so they can learn that skill of digitizing.

Q. How many pieces are you talking about?

A. That's the first task, to inventory, because we don't know what we have. We expect to have the contractor starting work in April setting up the system. By late May or early June, we'll be ready for volunteers.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.