Ala Moana: The People's Park Report

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THE PEOPLE 's PARK

by Robert Weyeneth

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THE PEOPLE 's PARK

by Robert Weyeneth Prepared for: Department of Parks and Recreation

July -1987

CONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.0

2.0

Origins of the Park: The 1920's ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 4 1.1

Location ........•.•..•...... ~ .. " ..•.................. 4

1.2

Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.3

Site Development ••.•.••.••••••••••.••••••••• · ••••••••• 6

Designing the Park: The 1930's •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 9 2.1

The Landscape Architects' Plan ••••••••••••••••••••••• 9

2.2

Implementing the Landscape Design ••••••••••••••••••• 10

2.3

The Architecture of Harry Sims Bent ••••••••••••••••• 13 2.3.1

The Canal Bridge ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 14

2.3.2

The Roosevelt Portals •••••••••••••••••••••••• 15

2.3.3

The Sports Pavilion and Banyan Court ••• ~ .~~ •• 17

2.3.4

The Lawn Bowling Green •••••••••••••••••••• ~ •• 20

2.4

Boulder Concrete: The Aesthetic of Hard Times ••••••• 22

2.5

The Social Context of Recreation •••••••••••••••••••• 24

2.6

Completing the Unfinished Agenda of the 1930's •••••• 26

3.0

The Park in Wartime: The 1940's •••••••••••••••••••••••••• 29

4.0

Creating a Beach Park: The 1950's •••••••••••••••••••••••• 30

5.0

The Magic Island Controversy: The 1960's ••••••••••••••••• 33

6.0

Pianning for the Future: The 1970's ••••••••• ~ •••••••••••• 37

7.0

Conclusion: The 1980's ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 41 Notes •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 45

.

Appendix ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ~ ••••••••••••••••••••• 47 Park Chronology •••.•••••••••••.•••••.•••••••••••••••• 48

List of Park Trees ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 51 Maps and Plans ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 53 Photographic Essay ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 64

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS

Map A:

Ala Moarta Park on the Island of Oahu •••••••••••••••••• 54

Map B:

Landscape Plan by Richards & Thompson, 1932 ••••••••••• 55

c:

Proposal by Lester McCoy, 1936 •••••••••••••••••••••••• 56

.Map D:

Ala Moana Park and City of Honolulu, 1941 ••••••••••••• 57

Map E:

Proposal by Parks & Recreation, 1949 •••••••••••••••••• 58

Map F:

Proposal by Henry J. Kaiser, 1954 ••••••••••••••••••••• 59

Map G:

Proposal by Harbor Commissioners, 1956 •••••••••••••••• 60

Map H:

Proposal by Belt Collins, 1961 •••••••••••••••••••••••• 61

Map I:

Proposal by Wilson Okamoto, 1975 •••••••••••••••••••••• 62

Map J:

Ala Moana Park & Magic Island Peninsula, 1987 ••••••.••• 63 ·~·

Map

The preparation of this document was financed in part by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, Public Law 89-665, as amended, as administered by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, through the Department of Land and Natural Resources, State of Hawaii.

\

Preface With

its mile-long beach set between views of Diamond

Head

to the east and the .looming Koolau and Waianae mountain ranges to the

north and west,

one

more

example

Hawaiian Islands.

Ala Moana Park seems at first glance to of the breath-taking natural scenery

the

The white sand beach, offshore coral reef, and

lawns dotted with palms, make

of

be

and flowering tropical

trees

Ala Moana unquestionably one of the most exotic city

parks

in the United States.

Moana

seems

banyans,

Surrounded today by downtown Honolulu, Ala

to be a piece of unspoiled Hawaii rescued from

the

encroaching street grid by far-sighted preservationists.

In fact, made

development.

arranged The

park's

itself

who

from

reef. at

that have matured f _ifty years carved

The beach is the creation

is a human invention,

now.

from

of

periodic intervals replenish the

elsewhere on the island of Oahu.

offshore reef.

man-

Its trees and shrubs are landscaping effects,

oceanfront swimming hole has been

coral

engineers, imports

Ala Moana Beach Park is entirely a

by the human hand,

fringing

the

however,

the

hydraulic sand

with

Even the

site

a tidal area filled by

The passage of five dec~des has

excavating turned

the

park into a setting of incomparable natural beauty, but Ala Moana is

what a geographer would call a â&#x20AC;˘culturalâ&#x20AC;˘ landscape.

It

is

is the crowning achievement of the golden age

of

the product of engineering expertise and landscape design.

The

park

Honolulu park-building during the 1930's, an attractive and func-

1

â&#x20AC;˘

tional

urban

space created in Depression-era America

withstood well the test of time.

that

has

Unlike Kapiolani Park and

its

nouveau-riche builders fascinated by polo, Victorian landscape of leisure, hard

times of the thirties.

park

for

federal

all the people. experiment

horse-racing, and the

Ala Moana was the product of the From the beginning it was to be

It grew as a result of

the

massive

with public works projects during the

Depression and survives as a monument to the ingenuity, tion,

and perseverance of local park proponents.

period

..

when budgets again constrain municipal

building

of

Ala Moana Park reminds us of the

a

Great

imagina-

Today,

in

governments, possibilities

a the of

limited resources creatively applied.

One can read the history of Hawaii over the last sixt,y years in

the

site

history of Ala Moana Park.

can

be

traced

beautification" group

The idea for a park on

to the 1920's and an

among socially prominent

interest Honolulu

wives

an

organization of generally affluent women,

One

Outdoor many

the

of leading business and political figures in the Territory

of Hawaii.

The Outdoor Circle enjoyed a degree of influence

municipal

affairs

elsewhere

in the United States prior to World

because

that

was unusual for

women's War

II,

largely

In Hawaii,

economy organized around plantation agriculture

exporting

in

organizations

of the territory's unique social structure.

world of rigid class and racial distinctions.

and

ncivic

women.

particularly active in promoting the idea was the

Circle,

an

in

the

sustained

a

By the 1920's, the

of sugar and the building of Honolulu as the political

commercial capital of this world had elevated

a

tight-knit

comb~nation of sugar companies, land monopolists, and development 2

interests to dominance in island life. who

ran

these

When the wives of the men

enterprises embarked on the task

of

•municipal

housekeeping• (a concern they shared with women in other American cities at the time), the Outdoor Circle emerged as a potent force in civic affairs.

Conceived thirties, wife.

in the twenties,

with

Ala Moana Park was born in

the

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal presiding as

mid-

A couple of the New Deal's •alphabet soup• federal

agen-

cies

provided the labor to establish the outlines of the

park

and complete its most architecturally significant features:

the

sports pavilion with its magnificent banyan garden,

bowling green, tals. and

the canal bridge,

a

lawn

and the Waikiki entrance

por-

In addition, relief labor constructed a small boat ~harbor tennis

courts,

erected

planted the landscape.

dressing rooms

and

showers,

and

The recreational facilities ensured that

Ala Moana would encourage a range of activities for those ing

modern

enjoy-

their leisure and for those who found spare time thrust upon

them by the unemployment of the Depression.

Unlike the

origins

of Kapiolani Park, Ala Moana would be •the people's park.• War

in

the

Pacific theater, tary

forties,

and Hawaii's important role

in

brought Honolulu's parks under temporary

jurisdiction.

Following the attack on Pearl

the mili-

Harbor,

Ala

Moana was conscripted for duty as the site for a makeshift set of coastal 1945,

fortifications. the

As the perception of danger passed

wartime installations were dismantled,

in

the landscape

was restored, and the park was returned to public use.

The fifties witnessed different pressures on park land.

3

As

the

jet age transformed the economy of the fiftieth

agriculture

to

tourism,

the

quickened,

especially on Oahu.

as

of new residents,

floods

pace of real

estate

state

from

development

Plane loads of tourists, as well produce~ calls in the

1950's

and

1960's to enlarge park facilities and to reshape the land into satellite

resort for Waikiki.

was increased in the sixties,

While park acreage at Ala

city

Moana

pressure to transform the new land

into a hotel district was resisted, a

a

a remarkable achievement for

(and a state) that have operated largely obliviously

to

the risks of over-development.

Over the years, has

the integrity of the park's original design

remained intact.

Moana

This study will trace the history of

from its origins in the 1920's to the present,

ticular

with

attention on the creation and evolution of the

the 1930 1 s.

Ala par-

park

in

Because the thirties design celebrates its fiftieth

birthday in the 1980's,

Ala Moana Park can now be considered for

eligibility on the National Register of Historic Places.

1.0.

1.1.

Origins of the Park: The 1920 1 $

Location.

Ala

Moana

Park

occupies

a

site

of

seventy-six

acres,

extending along the ocean for a mile and a quarter from the mouth of

the Ala Wai Canal to Kewalo Basin (see maps A and D).

approximately six hundred feet wide. real

Like most of the oceanfront

estate in downtown Honolulu today,

coral reef.

For this reason,

It is

the park is built on

a

the site has no known pre-contact

or archaeological significance.

4 I

The

historic shoreline in this part of Honolulu was

derably

further inland than it is today,

Moana Boulevard. roadway,

along what is now

shoreline

between

stretched

almost age

Ala

(The name "Ala Moana" means "ocean street.")

the predecessor of Ala Moana Boulevard,

present

consi-

the to

of

ocean

and

an

the present King

ecology,

area

of

Street.

A

ran along this wetlands

that

Prior

to

the

the local citizenry referred

to

the

wetlands as ~wamps and marshes.

Originally park").

it was called. the Moana Park

(literally

"ocean

In 1947 the city recognized popular usage and renamed it

Ala Moana Park.

1.2.

Acquisition.

Title

to the future park site passed to the City and , pounty

of Honolulu only in 1928, portion

of the area as a garbage and refuse dump since the

of the century. of

even though the city had been using

refuse

and a few gullible

ship-board

to identify the plumes of smoke as Honolulu's

downtown

turn

(The story is told that the city's incineration

inspired local wags

visitors

a

volcano.)

active

The site seems to have been among the

lands

of the Kingdom of Hawaii transferred by the Republic of Hawaii to the

United

deeded

area

was

by the federal government to the Territory of Hawaii

(25

October of

States government after annexation.

The

1927) and then from the territory to the City and County

Honolulu (16 January 1928).

The city received the site

the condition that the property "be used wholly as a public or used

other

public use of like nature,

and upon ceasing to be

as to the whole or any part thereof said property

with any and all additions,

on park so

together

improvements and appurtenances shall 5

revert to the Territory of Hawaii.• 1 1.3.

Site Development.

The

legislative history of the site suggests

transfer

of

that

title accommodated two local development

federal projects:

(1) the dredging of a ship channel through the Ala Moana reef, to link the Ala Wai Canal with the ocean-access of the Kewalo

Basin

channel and (2) the creation of new real estate by filling of the adjacent submerged lands with the excavated coral. these

two

enterprises inspired the territorial

Sentiment for legislature

to

authorize

the sale of $200,000 in bonds for a •reclamation

pro-

ject•

the reef and to request transfer of title to the

site

at

from the United States (3 May 1927).

Within six months of

territorial

request,

tive

transferring seventy-eight acres of

order

this

President Calvin Coolidge signed an :executhe

Ala

Moana

After the city acquired title in 1928, the Hawaiian Dred-

reef. ging

Company,

Ltd.

received the contract to dredge the channel

and fill the future park site.

The work was completed in October

1930. precise

The

tycoon owner,

role of the Hawaiian Dredging Company and

its

Walter Francis Dillingham, in the legislative his-

tory of the park is not clear, but it seems to have been substantial.

As the only dredging company in Hawaii at the time,

lingham's

business stood to profit from any excavation and

project in the territory.

Dilfill

In addition, Dillingham owned a large

parcel of adjacent real estate (the site of the present Ala Moana Shopping dered

Center),

the value of which would increase if it

a park rather than the city dump.

6

However,

there is

borno

evidence in the city's land title records that the company deeded the

site

to the federal government in 1927

securing implied.

a

reclamation

2

It

Dillingham

opportunity and,

at

of

expectation accounts

politically

territorial acquisi~ion of · the

the $200,000 bond measure because

same time,

have

site he

and

saw

an

contract

create an urban space of great

At work behind the scenes,

of

influential

to line up a lucrative government dredging

the

benefit. wife,

as some park

is more likely that the

encouraged

authorization

contract,

in

public

no doubt, was Dillingham's

Louise Gaylord Dillingham, president of the Outdoor Circle

(1929-31)

and subsequently an important member of the city

board for over thirty years until her death in 1964. acreage well

on Ala Moana reef was good for the family

park

Filling of business~

as for the Dillingham reputation as patrons of

the

as

city's

parks.

Louise

Dillingham's role in guiding the development of

Moana Park was considerable. been

discussed

cials, Members with

municipal reformers,

and local

civic

offigroups.

of the outdoor Circle had pressed a proposal for a

the

twenties,

territorial governor as early as Mrs.

proponents. asserted: for

The idea of a park ln the area had

in Honolulu since at least 1920 by public

visiting

1925.

the

was one of the park's most outspoken

•the dredging of Kewalo Basin, of reclaiming the land boating,

and establishing a system of

parks

with a tropically planted boulevard along the

would indeed add greatly to the beauty of Honolulu.• Presidency

Through

park

The benefits of a park on the reef were obvious, she

bathing,

Playgrounds

Dillingham

Ala

of

shore

Through her

the Outdoor Circle between 1929 and 1931 and

7

and

her

membership on the city's Shade Tree Commission,

a predecessor of

the Honolulu Park Board, Louise Dillingham helped fashion some of the first ideas for the park's form. progressed

in 1929 and 1930,

As the filling of the

site

the commls~ion increasingly turned

its attention to the design of the park.

Although the Shade Tree

commission played a largely advisory role in municipal government in the 1920's,

making recommendations on city-wide street plant-

ings to the mayor and board of supervisors, these

deliberations Mrs.

in

Dillingham's ideas carried significant

Commission members,

weight.

it is clear that

for example,

adopted her proposal

for a waterway â&#x20AC;˘in the scheme of Park beautification,â&#x20AC;˘

reasoning

that park acreage occupied by water did not require the expensive 3 maintenance that landscaped grounds did.

Through the activities of Louise Dillingham it is clear that the

issue of civic beautification linked the socially

and the politically powerful. as

the

In the fall of 1930, for example,

filling of the Moana park site

leading

citizen

governor

neared

completion,

took it upon himself to write

the

coconut palms and royal ponciana,

the absence of a single, with

the

gover~or

The issue of

selection

in city parks was not of great consequence in

but

instance does illustrate how,

scale

this of

territorial life,

within

Louise Dillingham

the was

informally as Ala Moana's advocate and first planner.

8

In

commissioners

responsibility for municipal parks,

turned the matter over to Louise Dillingham.

adjoining

he suggested.

centralized body of park

one

territorial

on the proper trees for the new park and its

boulevard:

charged

prominent

tree

itself,

provincial functioning

2. Designing the Park: The 1930's 2.1.

The Landscape Architects' Plan.

Shortly

1931,

after

the creation .of the Honolulu Park

Board

the city employed professionals to plan the park.

the first actions of the board,

in

One of

in July 1931, was to approve the

designs of two landscape architects, Catherine Jones Richards and Robert Oliver Thompson, The

later Mr.

and Mrs.

Roberto. Thompson.

Richards and Thompson plan became the basis for

development modified spatial

in the thirties,

the

park's

although some of its details

in the course of the decade.

were

Their proposals for

arrangement of the landscape -- two lagoons

and

the

alterr

nating

areas of massed foliage and wide open spaces

-- continue

to delineate the contours of the park's design today (see map B).

Richards and Thompson presented their plan to the public a popular monthly magazine late in 1932. should

0

in

The park, they argued,

be both aesthetic and functional.

On the one

hand,

it

should be attractively landscaped: on the other it should provide a of

â&#x20AC;˘

range of recreational opportunities nto handle the huge number people wanting entertainment on holidays and over

the

week-

ends.â&#x20AC;˘4 As

landscape architects,

Richards and Thompson proposed

a

design for the park layout that included six tennis courts, three baseball fields, Playground, linking designed

Ala as

volley ball courts, a children's wading pool, a

picnic Moana

spots

with outdoor grills, ¡ a

and Kapiolani parks,

a

a public alternative to private

9

small yacht

bridle boat

path harbor

clubs,

and

clubhouses

for

local rowing clubs.

The central

architectural

feature was to be an oceanfront recreational complex c~mbining

a

dance pavilion, restaurant, and bath house, bordered on the rnauka (mountain)

side by a large sunken pool with fountain and

(parallel

rows) of banyan trees.

Inste·ad of a beach,

allees Richards

and Thompson proposed a shaded shoreline promenade.

The setting for these structures was to be a tropical

•

scape

that expressed the cultural heritage of Hawaii.

proposed

lagoons,

one at either end of the park,

land-

The

two

echoed Louise

Oillingham's earlier suggestion of waterways to beautify the site and

keep

provide

maintenance a

setting the

pageants:

costs low.

for

a

The eastern

•eawaiian

lagoon

village•

for

was

to

municipal

western lagoon was to offer a "Japanese

vjllage" ,;

and teahouse. Chinese pagodas •with all the atmosphere needed-for • such• were planned for an oceanfront pier.

2.2.

Implementing the Landscape Design.

Some

of this plan had been executed by 1932,

and Thompson described it publicly. ged,

along

with

The lagoons had been

a drainage canal to control the

mountain showers toward the ocean at the site. had

planted

trees,

and

thoroughfare

six

.

run-off

hundred

the city had erected five •hau lanais.• had

been

laid out and graded,

recreational

dredfrom

Private donations

hundred coconut palms and one

system installed along the waterfront. central

when Richards

and

The a

banyan

.

park's

sprinkling

The terrace on which the

complex was to sit had

been

raised

with

retaining walls.

Looking back from the perspective of the chairman

of

mid-thirties,

the Honolulu Park Board judged the contribution

lO

the of

• Richards Charles

and Thompson to have been Lester

McCoy thought,

significant.

had been to

Its

provide

utility, "tentative

studies and layouts• that permitted the city to begin the process of

transforming newly filled· land into att~active landscape,

soon as Depression labor became available:

grading

as

roads,

con-

structing sea and boundary walls, dredging the lagoons and drainage

canal,

hauling topsoil,

preliminary _planting.

McCoy

had

establishing a park

nursery,

With the Richards-Thompson plan in

and hand, as•

been able to begin roughing out the park as early

1931, when the territorial legislature, municipal government, and private

donations responded to the worsening economic crisis

making

unemployment

relief funds available to the

park

by

board. ~

One Thompson was

to

might

add

to McCoy's assessment

that

plan also established the framework in which grow in the thirties:

park

the idea of a people's park

that

be a park open to community-wide use, of recreational activities,

While

a number of specific features were not a

Ala Moana was

offering places for

range

implemented:

Richardsthe

combined landscaped spaces with sport facilities. to

the

set amid green

surroundings.

built,

many

were

recreation center ornamented by a formal garden,

lagoons

housing Hawaiian and Oriental culture

harbor,

and

general

emphasis on a self-contained park landscape with

a

a

zones,

link between Ala Moana and Kapiolani

the

boat

Park.

~he

archi-

tectural features, rather than a beach park opening to the ocean, ~as also to characterize development for two decades • Territorial

.

relief funds enabled ~he city to

out the site in 1931,

start

laying

but it was federal assistance beginning in 11

1933

that brought the park to an attractive,

tion.

The

functional

Federal Employment Relief Administration

condi-

(F.E.R.A.)

and, briefly, the short-lived Civil Works Administration (c.w.A.) provided

the

construction

resources for the park board to undertake a program in the thirties.

At its peak,

major

the

daily

labor force reached 800-900 workers.

As

chairman

of

the Honolulu Park

Board

for

ten

years,

Charles Lester McCoy presided over the creation of Ala Moana Park in

the

thirties,

coordinating federal relief,

the designs

of

professional planners, and the views of fellow board members like Louise

Dillingham.

A

wealthy man with an interest

in

public

service,

McCoy had retired at age 42 from the wholesale

business

and moved with his wife to Honolulu from Peoria, .Illi' 1919.

Between 1931 and 1941, he chaired the newly

nois

in

created bering

park board at a salary of one dollar per McCoy's

grocery

year.

travails trying to build parks in the

Rememmidst

of

national depression, one former associate recalled that â&#x20AC;˘at times his

dreams of the beautiful outran the limitation of the practi-

cal: and his favorite 'child,' Ala Moana park, never developed as he hoped it would.â&#x20AC;˘ 5 Urban

critic Lewis Mumford also knew McCoy from their

col-

laboration in the thirties. ¡ He, as well as anyone, understood the circumstances that resulted in McCoy's resignation as chairman of the park board in 1941.

Hawaii the

Mumford met McCoy on a vacation visit to

in 1938 and was subsequently hired to write a report

for

park board on the relation of park development to Honolulu's

future.

Some

of Mumford's recommendations in the final

report

were so controversial -- particularly the proposal for a sweeping

12

•

reorganization of park administration -- that McCoy felt to

resign

from

the park board.

obliged

Mumford recalled McCoy

as

"a

public-spirited Tory who lived by his principles:• On some of the most fundamental matters of religion and politics we were completely at odds:· but men of principle have something important in common even when their principles differ: each knows on which side of the line he is fighting and each knows the extent of their common ground.

A little before settling down to the final drafting of this report I sought to find out from Mr. McCoy the sort of topics he thought should be covered, to be sure he accepted my own interpretation of my duties: His answer should be engraved in every administrator's heart: •when I ask a professional man for advice," he said quietly, •1 don't want him to tell me what is in my mind: I want to find out what is in his.• Needless to say, the man who spoke these words printed the report without challenging a word in it: and he loyally circulated it and backed it up.

Eventually he resigned his chairmanship when my own drastic proposals for the reorganizat~on of the Park Board found no ·favor among his colleagues.

In

spite

of

these frustrations during his tenure

Honolulu Park Board, as

the

the

McCoy was eulogized after his death in 1942

"virtual founder of Honolulu's modern park

commemorative

on

system."

plague at Ala Moana tells visitors that

the

A park

was

"envisioned and created" by the •enthusiasm and efforts" McCoy. 7 2.3.

of

The Architecture of Harry Sims Bent.

To

Lester

make

good

use of the promise

of

McCoy hired an architect in 1933,

federal Harry

assistance,

Sims

Bent,

to

supplement the landscape proposals that Richards and Thompson had suggested fifteen to

two years previously'".

The park site was divided into

or so "construction units," and the architect was

prepare

complete working drawings

for

each

unit.

blueprints,

together with the federal relief labor,

produce

the

by

Bent's

combined to

end of the decade a usable urban space 13

asked

with

a

distinctive architectural identity.

Bent's influence was enormous and his talents considerable. 8 Bent

is not well known today,

most

creative and important architects in Honolulu in the 1920's

and

1930's.

He

construction

but he was considered one of

had come to Honolulu about 1927

to

supervise

of the Academy of Arts and subsequently designed

number of public buildings and private residences. responsible

for

Park Board in the thirties,

some

his best work.

Moana

Park

canal

bridge

and these

(completed in 1934),

by

designs

It is Bent's work that today

its unique character,

remain

give

exemplified in the the portals at

the

Ala

whimsical

the

Waikiki

entrance (named for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after dedicated

them in 1934),

(completed

in

1937),

a

Bent was also

virtually all of the plans implemented

Honolulu of

the

the sports pavilion and banyan

he

garden

and the lawn bowling green (completed

in

1939).

In layout

addition

to his work at Ala Moana,

Bent

designed

and structures of a number of smaller parks in

including Mother Waldron Playground, Lanikila Park comfort station,

the

Honolulu,

Kawananakoa Playground, the

Kalihi-Waena Playground,

Haleiwa

Beach Park, the wall at Hauula Beach Park, Ala Wai Clubhouse, the park

service center near Kapiolani Park,

Kalakaua Recreational Center. the

angular

and a design

for

the

Many of his park designs combined

zig-zag motifs associated with the Art

Deco

style

with the curved surfaces typical of Streamline Moderne.

2.3.1.

The Canal Bridge.

Bent's first design in Ala Moana Park was for an

14

equestrian

bridge the

to span the park's drainage canal.

side,

basic shape of the canal bridge consists of two joined half-

circles.

The two half-circles screen the single arch of the path

carried

by the bridge.

The curved motif is reinforced

four arched planes of the bridge walls, ing

Seen from the

which tops them,

pierce

them.

by

the

the half cylinder mould-

and the half-circle grille openings

The forms that buttress the bridge in the

which center

and at the sides are also rounded.

Viewed proach tail, and

less

can

literally,

the arched forms and inclined

seem like a humpbacked animal with

momentarily at rest.

long

snout

and

The bridge buttresses resemble limbs

suggest to the imaginative passerby . that the creature

might

While we have no

actually rise and walk away whenever it wanted. clues

ap-

{

to what inspired Harry Sims Bent to construct so whimsical

a bridge,

a spirit of playfulness is clearly intended.

ments

surprise

of

and fun evident in the canal

The ele-

bridge

became

hallmarks of Bent's park architecture.

The bridge was completed in 1934 as a c.w.A. undated

blueprint

entitled

â&#x20AC;˘Bridle

project.

The

at the Department of Parks and Recreation Path Bridges," suggesting that more

is

than

one

into

Ala

Here two central openings

are

structure was planned.

2.3.2.

The Roosevelt Portals.

The Moana

Roosevelt

Park

Portals provide a grand

at its Waikiki end.

joined to form a single imposing gateway. central

entry

beginnings fifteen-foot

structure,

two

entrance

To the sides of

sets of outer portals

of the scalloped perimeter wall.

mark

the

The height of

the

portals make them reminiscent of a triumphal

15

this

arch,

although there is one 路 intriguing difference. phal

Unlike most trium-

arches that have arched openings and squared

corners,

the

Roosev~lt Portals have rectangular openings and arched side vations.

ele-

The combination of curved and an路g ular shapes, scalloped

walls, and wedge indentations at the Roosevelt portals is seen in many of Bent's other park designs.

Ornamentation is limited to geometric.motifs. half cylinders top the portals. the

openings.

The

A series

of

Prism shapes line the lintels of

central niches on both the mauka and

makai

sides of the central structure are fluted.

Projecting and reces-

sed

convex

planes

octagonal

are combined with concave and piers,

joined

by walls decorated by

curves.

Low

vertical

half.路~路

cylinders;

bound the elevated curved plaza in front of the entry

structure. stone

The

random

pattern and rough surface of the

paving is a pleasing contrast to the geometric and

coral smooth

surfaces of the concrete portals.

Harry

Sims Bent designed the portals and a system of

side-

walks and roads so that visitors entered the park through one the

portal's openings.

disrupted.

of

Today this circulation pattern has been

Bent left a generous forty feet between the

and outer portals for automobile traffic.

central

Because all traffic in

and out of the park is now routed on the west side of the central portals

due

to the realignment of Ala Moana Boulevard

bridge,

the

triangular island that Bent designed as the setting

for

the

central portals no

longer

remains,

formal axial symmetry of the original plan.

and

compromising

its

the

Additional concrete

paving now extends beyond the original coral atone of the central

16

plaza.

The road that once exited the park now ends abruptly just

beyond the portals.

The

scalloped

walls

that adjoin the outer

planting space within their concave recesses. together

with

the sectional nature of the

portals

This wall,

allow

vegetation, the

vertical

wedge indentations, and the recessed moulded curves along the top of the central section of each scallop, break up the long mass of the

wall.

The plantings,

as well as the vistas framed by

portals, offer a preliminary view of the park inside.

the

In effect,

Bent's desig~ welcomes people to the park.

The

portals were built as a F.E.R.A.

project and were for-

mally dedicated in 1934 during a visit by President Roosevelt Honolulu.

The

to

undated blueprint labelled â&#x20AC;˘East Portalâ&#x20AC;˘ suggests

that park officials planned gates at the park's western

entrance

as well.

2.3.3.

The Sports Pavilion and Banyan Court.

The simple concrete exterior walls of the sports pavilion do not suggest the exotic richness of the banyan court hidden behind its

walls.

The banyan court is probably the best-kept secret in

Honolulu's parks today: it is also perhaps Harry Sims Bent's most noteworthy design.

The pleted

sports pavilion and banyan court were in

finished

1937,

officially

com-

although much of the sports pavilion had

been

somewhat earlier,

by 1935.

The pavilion

itself

was

designed to be a recreation center, offering rooms for crafts and games and, women.

across the courtyard,

locker facilities for men

and

Inside, artist Robert Lee Eskridge painted two wall-size

murals depicting the Hawaiian makahiki (sports festival).

17

Tennis

courts

outside the pavilion were designed,

prisingly effectively,

ingeniously and sur-

to share a common wall with the

tranquil

spaces of the interior courtyard.

The

courtyard itself consists of ¡ six intricately

stone planters (four contain banyan trees today), exotically shaped reflecting pools. court

detailed

surrounded

The character of the banyan

is different from the rest of Bent's park designs

because

its motifs are neither Art Deco nor Streamline Moderne. tators Indian,

have

variously described the courtyard

Persian,

and eclectic.

by

Commen-

architecture

as

Bent himself saw the design as

having essentially a "Pacificâ&#x20AC;˘ inspiration: The idea for the character of the banyan garden came about through a series of discussions between Mr. McCoy and myself.

We were looking for a solution that could be applied to the enclosed rectangular space that would reflect a flavor of the Pacific basin background. During one of these discussions Mr. McCoy produced a battered postcard, collected on one of his tours of the Far East, showing a remnant of an old Balinese garden, wherein stone tree boxes were used adjacent to shaded reflection pools. This germ of an idea was adopted for its suitability and character and also because of its simplicity and the fact that it seemed to offer a mode of construction that would fit in with our labor-material ratio.

With that vague prototype a clue, I proceeded to design the garden as it now stands.

JS

Plans for the courtyard evolved over the mid-thirties, it seems up to the time of actual construction. early

Park blueprints

in 1934 show paddle tennis courts on the site that

the banyan court.

even

became

Lewis Mumford mentions that one version of the

plans

called for a restaurant set in a formal garden.

dated

blueprint

for the â&#x20AC;˘Tennis Pavilion Gardens"

differences

from today's banyan court,

last-minute

changes

(not

18

shows

apparently because

reflected on the

during the construction phase.

The

plans)

were

unother some added

On

Bent's

plans which survive,

no mention is made of

the

low-relief

sculptures on the courtyard walls nearest the

pavilion.

Only benches are shown in these areas, and the layout

of

sports

the walls is quite different from what was eventually

These and

marble sculptures were the work of depict stylized Hawaiian figures.

male

and female Hawaiian,

flutes:

on

position, playing

Marguerite

built.

Blasingame

On the mauka wall

are

kneeling back-to-back, · playing

a

nose

the makai side is a similar pair carved in a sitting with

arms and face touching.

traditional

Figures

games are also present in the

flagging of the passages of the sports pavilion.

of

Hawaiians

coral One

stone

blueprint

for

the •sports Lanai• shows herringbone brick was intend,d

the

paving

•

of

these passages,

rather than the

colored

for slate

actually used.

Minor subsequent changes to Bent's plan include installation of

doors between the piers of the pavilion,

as . well as addition

of less aesthetic elements like a telephone and exposed on

the curved corner of the building.

Pilgrim

While plans show

plumbing "split

shakes• on the central gabled-roof section of the pavil-

ion, it is now tiled.

The banyan

most significant change in the original design court

and sports pavilion occurred in the early

of

the

1970's,

when the McCoy Pavilion was added to the Diamond Head side of the courtyard.

Construction

of

this

complex

of

assembly

rooms,

lanais, ·and offices removed several structures from the thirties: two sets of locker rooms, zig-zag

a practice tennis court, and a curving

wall separating these facilities from the banyan

court.

~

I

[ 19

I

When Lester McCoy's widow,

Hazel Corning McCoy died in 1968, she

bequeathed

the largest gift ever given the

$1.2 million

city

for construction of a pavilion in Ala Moana Park as a memorial to her husband.

The McCoy Pavilion,

w.

.designed by Charles J.

Cham~erlain and completed in 1975, is a sympathetic addition that does

blend well with the older sports pavilion,

even though its

placement destroyed some of the original historical fabric of the banyan court.

2.3.4.

The Lawn Bowling Green.

Constructed in 1939, Barry

the lawn bowling green was the last of

Sims Bent's designs for Ala Moana Park.

It remains today

the only lawn bowling green in Honolulu~ The

green

is

a raised square lawn area

of

eight

.lanes, {

enclosed by a wide coral stone walkway and a five-foot decorative cement and

brick wall.

The corners of the brick wall are

inside each curve are brick benches topped with

similar

to those in Mother Wal~ron Playground,

park completed in 1937. designed

with

with

tile,

very

Bent-designed

The brick piers of the four gates

projections and indentations to add

these points of entry. contrasts

路a

rounded,

were

interest

to

The curved geometric design of the gates

the rectangular lines of the

brick

piers.

The

original pergola has been enclosed and enlarged to serve now as a clubhouse, locker room, and storage area.

Lawn bowling is an import to Hawaii and newcomers have

been

largely responsible for supporting the game in Honolulu. The park board

built

Australian lawn

the green with city funds on the suggestion doctor

bowling club.

who had moved to Honolulu and

of

established

an a

The green was completed after six months of 20

construction portion In

in

May 1939.

Neglected during World

War

II,

of the the site was later used for a children's

museum.

the 1960's interest in the sport was again rekindled

mainland

visitor

prodded the park department

into

a

when

a

extensively

renovating the area in 1967.

Lawn object

bowling

is not as simple to play as

it

looks.

The

of the game is to roll a lop-sided wooden ball (called

bowl)

toward

center

of

a small white ball (called a jack) placed

play.

Each player tries to get his or her

a

at

the

ball

as

close to the jack as possible, earning points based on proximity.

An average game lasts about two hours.

Great

Britain

in

The game was invented in

the thirteenth century and is

popular

today

primarily with retired people, who enjoy the quiet dignity 路of its leisurely pace.

The immensely

challenges if

consequently, hours the

of rolling lop-sided balls

the playing surface is not bowlers

spend

thirties, the

problems,

bowlers

their

compounded level

and,

non-playing

Apparently as early

original design presented bowlers

with

as some

because the rounded corners of the perimeter wall were

intended as planters for trees, planters

perfectly

a good part of

worrying about lawn maintenance.

are

threatened discovered

and the spreading roots from the

the playing field.

In

the

early

l970's,

the playing surface varied as much as

three

and a half inches from one side of the green to the other and set about

levelling the lawn using sophisticated

ments. lawn

Because are

the

enormous,

surveying

instru-

expenses of maintaining a perfectly the private Honolulu Lawn

21

Bowls

Club

level has

assumed responsibility for maintenance of the green since 1981.

2.4.

Boulder Concrete: The Aesthetic of Hard Times.

Ala

Moana

Park was the creation of the hard times

of

the

Depression, and nowhere are these histori~al origins more evident than in the erection of the park's walls a~d terraces.

The story

of

their construction so closely mirrors the growth of the

as

a whole that it would not be too much of an

say

park

exaggeration

to

that these modest rock walls symbolize the successful strug-

gle to create the park in the midst of national depression.

While territorial and federal emergency ~ssistance

provided

the labor that made park development possible, from the beginning funds themselves were limited. had

to

As a consequence, Bent and McCoy

devise construction methods that required

outlays

only

mjnimum

for materials and tools and that permitted use of

perienced

and unskilled relief labor.

inex-

The solution was a

nique

called boulder concrete 路 construction.

money

by using indigenous materials and could be easily

tech-

The process

saved learned

by people unfamiliar with the building trades.

In

boulder concrete construction,

a thin gruel of concrete

was poured into wooden forms packed solid with boulders of and lava rock.

coral

Lester McCoy estimated that use of the coral and

lava stone as filler saved one-fourth to one-third of the cost of regular

concrete

collected given

lay,

because the park

the rock debris from its properties.

shape

Success

construction,

by

a system of removable,

board The walls

repeating

wood

in constructing solid walls with nicely squared

first,

simply were forms. corners

in concocting a concrete glue sufficiently thin

to

fill the voids around the boulders and, second, in tamping . vigor22

ously the mixture poured into the forms. ledged

that

fected

his

Harry Sims Bent acknow-

the shortage of building materials

profoundly

af-

designs:

There was some ignorant criticism¡at . the time on the score of the massive type of construction carried out.

The critics did not know or care that this was mandatory because the only type of construction poss1a1e under the material limitations was "boulder concrete.n The

boulder concrete process

constructions, area

The

rough

unfinished

terrace

concrete walls with their

exposed

thir-

rock

and they

their

unsurprising

rural

character

crudeness expressing

of the surroundings.

in the park,

the

In more

are

strike

visitor as suitably rustic features for a park

ting,

the

functional

constructed early in the

with stucco at the central t~rrace,

casual

locations

sturdy,

well in Ala Moana's central

with its pair of pergolas,

ties.

the

exemplified

produced

set-

distinctly

suitably

formal

like the walls at the Roosevelt Portals,

boulder concrete is finished with a layer of stucco

painted

white to hide its humble origins.

With terraces their

walls

and

transcends

historic importance as reminders of the park's

Depression

While it was a construction technique intended to avoid

â&#x20AC;˘architectural embellishment and decorationn that added con-

siderably park

the boulder concrete

have even taken on an aesthetic appeal that

origins. the

the passage of time,

to the material costs of a job,

officials

work.

A

even in the

sensed some of the subsequent

passage

in

one of Lester

McCoy's

appeal reports,

thirties of

their perhaps

drafted by Harry Sims Bent, makes this case well: In keeping with this simplified system of construction architectural design of the various units has resolved 23

â&#x20AC;˘

the it-

self logically into a simple interpretation of the plastic character inherent in a poured system of construction.

No attempt has been made to push the designs along any stylistic paths or grooves, nor on the other hand to deliberately seek novelties.

The sensible course has seemed to be the one with the least number of pre-conceived notions.

Design studies have .in each case started from simple, thoroughly considered plans, with all practical arrangements and require-ments established.

From this point the attention of the designer has been focused on the qualities of mass, proportion, scale, fenestration and the decorative effect of light and shade as produced by contrasting planes and ¡ contours.

Under the brilliant sunlight of Hawaii the possibilities of striking and interesting effects through the play of light and shadow through changes of planes is unlimited.

To give interest and texture to the large plain wall areas the form marks of the poured walls are left unconcealed.

The exposed concrete surfaces are given a light wash of Oyster white stucco, which forms an effective color contrast with the colorful planting of the slands and the brillant Lsic] azure tints of sea and water.

11

~s much as any park feature, a

boulder construction stands as

monument to the moment in time when the park was

imaginative

response

Through

use

the

techniques, and

park

to

pressing

practical

of indigenous materials

and

creatfd,

an

considerations. simple

building

officials were able to stretch scant resources

create architecture whose minimalist design symbolizes

well

the aesthetic of hard times.

2.5. The Social Context of Recreation.

Government sought to produce sturdy,

functional people,

well,

during the Depression.

parks

and playgrounds was intended to provide recreational

lets

for

On the one hand,

to

contend with spare time.

public recreation -- if it were â&#x20AC;˘wholesomeâ&#x20AC;˘ build better citizens.

on the

other

was also

of out-

people enjoying their leisure and for those forced

unemployment

to

the building

as

by

hand,

supposed

One of the themes that ties tog~ther

the history of city parks in the United states is the interest in using urban space to effect social change.

24

In this respect, the

origins

of Ala Moana were no exception to the national

Throughout social

the l930's,

purposes

people,•

of

the Honolulu Park Board

its

park planning.

its report for 1938 announced~

designed,

built,

•our · "They

pattern.

reaffirmed

the

parks

for

are

are

conceived,

maintained for one single purpose -- to enrich

the

life of people."

the

people's park,

Toward this end,

Ala Moana Park was to be

providing recreational space and

facilities

tor •all classes of the whole community.• As part of the process of enriching individual lives,

offi-

cials hoped to build a sense of community through the parks. particular

they

hoped

to revive •iost• island

traditions

In for

present-day

citizens to share with the largely displaced

native

Hawaiians.

Ala Moana Park, for example, was to have a •eaw·a iian

Village" of grass huts on the shores of the park's eastern lagoon to

stimulate interest in Polynesian arts and crafts.

struction

The

of the Ala Wai Rowing Clubhouse on a proposed

con-

parkway

between Ala Moana and Kapiolani parks was intended to resurrect a sport •in imminent danger of dying out.• 12 In addition, Ala Moana Park was to play an important socializing and acculturating role in the lives of its visitors, particularly its native Hawaiian and recent immigrant McCoy

pointed

to

users.

the •complex racial mixture and

the

tester extreme

congestion that prevails in many parts of the city• to argue that Honolulu

had perhaps the greatest •social need" for

"wholesome"

park· and recreational facilities of any city in the United States in 1936. not

"The local economic structure,• McCoy

continued,

suited to quick absorbtion [sic] of the oncoming

•

25

"is

generation

in

useful

employment

burden on civic, agement

outlet

for

an

social and recreational agencies."

of Polynesian arts and crafts at Ala

Village,"

the

and the resulting gap places

example,

was

The encour-

Moana's

intended "to provide

In short,

had an important social mission: in a culturally diverse city. 13

urban

practical element

in the minds of thirties

parks

It

"Hawaiian

a

for social and welfare activities·among this

population."

unusual

planners,

the task of assimilation

ought to be mentioned in passing ·that the actual use parks

planners

often failed to conform with

and park officials.

of

the

expectations

of of

Ala Moana Park clearly provided a

numoer of recreational outlets, and Honolulu's diverse population no

doubt mixed in the park,

especially after Ala Moana's

attractions took shape toward the end of the less,

it

decade.

Never the-

A rape in the

created park quickly escalated in the subsequent

proceedings

into one of the territory's most

criminal

notorious

.because of the racial and class tensions it exposed.

Case

~

should be acknowledged that the park could also be the

setting for the expression of social antagonisms. newly

~ajor

trials,

The Massie

of 1931 -- initially called the Ala Moana Case by the press

-- suggested Motives planners

that parks divided as well as

united

communities.

of social reform may have animated the thinking of in

the

thirties,

but parks alone could by

nu

park means

eradicate the tensions of the modern city.

2.6. Completing the Unfinished Agenda of the 1930's.

In

an informal report in 1936,

Lester McCoy described

the

development of the park so far and the plans for the future (see 14 map C).

It was a story of progress, he asserted, by which •the 26

•

once

formless and unsightly dump has taken on the form and char-

acter

of

point

to the range of projects either completed or near

tion.

a real modern park."

To make his

case,

McCoy

In addition to the Bent-design•d ~anal bridge,

portals,

could comple-

Roosevelt

sports pavilion, banyan court, and bowling green, McCoy

could boast about the landing and docking facilities of the yacht and

boating center (the site of the present Ala Wai

Yacht

Har-

bor), the Oriental Lagoon with landscaping •in the characteristic Chinese

and Japanese manner," and the Hawaiian Lagoon "featuring

native palms and plants.• tural

architec-

features that represent the park's legacy from the 1930's.

The

report is particularly illuminating for what

the

park

~

board the

It is these landscaping and

hoped to build but did not have the funds to implement thirties.

in

a

On the drawing boards in 1936 were plans for

•central recreation unit• with a 4000-seat outdoor auditorium and stage

set amid promenades and plazas,

•village" Hawaii,•

of

a municipal

grass huts "harking back to the atmosphere of

pergolas

and

a promenade at Kewalo

fishermen, and gates at the western entrance. no

portals at its western gate,

scaped the

Kewalo

Kewalo

aquarium,

Basin

for

1949).

But

Village" of Ulu Mau was constructed in Ala Moana

in

and park brochures in the 1950's were advertising

•authentic grass huts" as must-see sights •for island along

with

aquarium

was

local

land-

Basin (the territorial governor withdrew land

"Hawaiian 1948,

old

The park still has

and the park board never

end of the park for harbor use in

a

at the Park its

the oriental Garden and the banyan court.

visitors," 15 A new

built in the early 1950's but placed in

Kapiolani

27

Park. in

The former sports pavilion (enlarged with a major addition

the early 1970's and renamed the McCoy Pavilion) today

tions

as the community center envisioned in the

grand

func-

"central

recreation unit" of the thirties' plan.

The thirties planners envisioned Ala· Moana as part of a park and parkway system for the city, and this design has largely been realized,

as well.

The city acquired the land on the mauka side

of the Ala Wai Canal for park purposes in 1933,

and Lester McCoy

set about developing plans for a landscaped boulevard joining Ala Moana and Kapiolani parks. and

Boulevard

providing ties."

He planned for a

•useful modern Park

system extending for a total of over five

miles,

a varied assortment of sport and recreational Although

McCoy's

proposal for a

boulevard

facili-

was. never {

constructed along the mauka side of the Ala Wai, as he envisioned it,

the

link

between the parks was realized

two

other

ways.

Today, the Ala Wai Golf Course and Ala Wai Field (with its rowing clubhouse

designed by Barry Sims Bent in 1936) connect Ala Moana

and Kapiolani parks on the mauka side with a wide expanse of park land.

The

Ala Wai Boulevard (with its adjacent promenade)

pro-

vides a parkway on the makai (ocean) side.

F~nally, there is some reason to believe that Ala Moana Park is a local success story that defied the national experience with parks and playgrounds in the thirties.

In a recent study of The 16 Public Landscape of t h e ~ .Q!.!! , designer Phoebe Cutler argues that

efforts to federalize public recreation during the

sion

produced

utility, advantage

parks characterized by "the New

standardization, of

and

austerity."

federal relief in

the

Deal

Depres-

traits

of

In the rush to take

national

emergency,

park ~

28

officials tains,

too

often sacrificed quality to quantity,

building

facilities,

great numbers of spare and

few

with

designs

generalization is sound, tions to the rule.

McCoy

sober

she

main-

recreational

of â&#x20AC;˘lasting dignity.â&#x20AC;˘

If

then the Honolulu parks are the

this excep-

Clearly, the administrative efforts of Lester

and the architectural talents of Harry Sims Bent make

Ala

Moana Park a treasure from the thirties.

3.0.

The Park in Wartime: The 1940's

The city's parks were conscripted by the military during the second

world

parks

war.

board,

A military officer assumed control

and a number of parks,

like Ala Moana,

verted into makeshift coastal fortifications. itself

for a second Pearl Harbor,

barracks, were

and

camouflage,

gun emplacements,

left standing,

as they served well

the

we~â&#x20AC;˘ con-

As Hawaii

barbed wire fences sprouted in the

generally

of

braced

magazines,

park. as

Trees natural

but smaller plants and lawns usually did not survive

the wartime construction and use.

When Pacific maintain

the

perception

began to wind down, jurisdiction

over

of danger passed and the war military authorities Ala

Moana

in

in

the

attempted

particular.

They

requested that the park be converted into an army air force and

recuperation

approved permitted

the

center.

request,

The military-controlled

on condition that the army

park

to

rest board

facility

be

for only one year and that it be confined to only half

the park. However, in March 1945, the city's board of supervisors refused to consider an extension of military jurisdiction.

29

'

When 1946,

the public was again welcome at Ala Moana

in

January

visitors were shocked at the condition of the park.

authorities

While

had ordered the removal of wartime installations and

the repair of roads and sidewalks,

the lawns and shrubbery could

not be so quickly restored. As a consequence, the Board of Public Parks and Recreation had to weather a storm of criticism for conditions citizens discovered. report

out,

In response, the board's annual

for 1947 struck a rather defensive note,

explain

to

barbed

hasten

as it tried

an impatient public that "camouflage can be wire

the

and bomb shelters removed,

the recovery of living things which have

but

painted

nothing

been

to

can

neglected

for years.â&#x20AC;˘ Park officials were hampered by postwar problems of~locating everything from trucks to operating lawnmowers,

as well as funds

for staffing. It was a slow process to restore the parks to their pre-war

condition,

but

the return of peacetime priorities

budgets eventually accomplished the task â&#x20AC;˘ . report

was

again."

.â&#x20AC;˘.

were

bravely

announcing,

By 1949,

"Honolulu's

parks

annual

are

green

And, within fairly short order, a number of new features

introduced into Ala Moana Park in particular:

village

the

and

of

Ulu

Mau opened in 1948,

remodelled after 1950,

the

Oriental

the Hawaiian Lagoon

was

and a children's center was added to

the

sports pavilion in 1954.

4.0.

Creating a Beach Park: The 1950's

One major postwar improvement at Ala Moana was the construetion of the beach so popular today.

30

It is important to remember

that

Moana

1950's,

Park was not built as a "beach park."

Ala

swimmers.

Prior to

the

Moana had no swimming beach and few facilities

for

In

presence

of

fact,

swimming

two nearby sewer

was discouraged because outfalls.

More

of

the

fishermen

than

swimmers probably made use of the oceanfront at Ala Moana.

Local

people

often

water

beyond

the park's seawall prior to construction of the

erected modest wooden fishing stands in the

swimming

beach.

For the most part, though, Ala Moana was a place for outdoor recreation

but

not really ocean or beachfront

sports.

In

the

thirties and forties, the park encouraged visitors to look inward toward its grounds and structures, rather than outward toward the ocean. but

One could gaze at the Pacific from the park,

of course,

actual use of the ocean was constrained by the presence of a

seawall,

which symbolically and practically separated

landscape

from seascape.

Initially, than

swimmers

the waters off the park belonged to boats rather and fishermen.

The

park,

afterall,

had

been

created in the late 1920's out of a simultaneous effort to dredge an

offshore ship channel (see map D).

The channel in front

of

the park permitted boats access to the ocean via the Kewalo Basin exit,

but this purpose became obsolete after 1951, when a direct

ocean

entrance was dredged for the Ala Wai boat harbor.

In

already

the meantime, made

clear

population growth in postwar the need for greater beach

densely congested downtown district, a

consequence,

plans

Hawaii

access

in

which Ala Moana served.

were made to reroute the sewer lines

31

had the As and

accommodate the needs of swimmers. jetty

that

In 1952 the territory built a

prevented the polluted waters of the Ala

from entering the channel off Ala Moana. a

Wai

Canal

Between 1954 and 1955,

territorial public works project filled part of the old

ping

ship-

channel to raise a platform on which路a beach could be

structed. after

The

almost

con-

present beach came into existence in June 55,000 cubic yards of sand was

beach from Oahu's leeward coast.

imported

1955,

for

the

To provide for the thousands of

swimmers attracted to the new beach, the present pair of dre~sing room

and shower facilities on either side of the McCoy

was

constructed between 1959 and 1961,

designed

by

Harry Sims Bent.

Pavilion

replacing the rest rooms

Lifeguard towers were

added

in

1969.

In the decades that followed, immensely unstable. to and

this artificial beach

proved

Under natural conditions, the sand supplied

a beach and eroded from it are in equilibrium.

The position

size of a beach are affected by seasonal variations in

wave

action and sediment load, as well as by general weather patterns.

The small beach at Ala Moana before the 1920's was probably quite stable,

being protected from significant wave action by the wide

shallow reef offshore. though,

Dredging of the boat channel after 1928,

disrupted the pattern of sand moving across the reef

resupply

the beach,

to

because the man-made chasm effectively cap-

tured the migrating sand.

Since the

there was no longer a natural mechanism to

beach created in 1955,

periodic beach restoration

must be undertaken at Ala Moana. beach was first built,

projects

In 1976, twenty years after the

the dredged coral fill of the

32

replenish

underlying

platform

became exposed,

structed.

For the job,

and the entire beach had to be

recon-

30,000 cubic yards of sand were brought

to

Ala Moana from a fossil beach ridge at Mokuleia on the 17 shore of Oahu.

5.0.

The

The Magic Island Controversy: The 1960's

sandy beach was one of two major postwar changes at Ala

Moana Park.

1960's,

north

The second major development occurred in the

when

a

peninsula was bui~t on the reef at the

early eastern

end.

Both changes increased park acreage,

but neither has

al-

tered

substantially the design within the original park (see map

J).

Today -the Island.

man-made peninsula is popularly known

as

Magic

Its thirty-six acres are a welcome addition adjacent to

the crowded municipal park, since they provide a well-landscaped, spectacularly nic,

swim,

situated setting for hundreds of visitors to and jog.

pie-

Ironically, though, the plan in 1961 th a t

created Magic Island very nearly demolished the original park and its thirties design.

Cinitially, the peninsula was conceived and

built as the site for

a

public park.

o expand Waikiki,

not as

Only after heated controversy was it set

aside

exclusively for recreation.

The officials area

idea

of

offshore development appealed

anxious to expa nd beach facilities near

both the

to

park

downtown

and to development interests looking to enlarge the Waikiki

hotel district, two public parks.

which was hemmed in by the ocean, the canal, and In the immediate postwar years, city planners 33

and

private

developers debated the possibilities of

"reclamation"

project to create new real estate.

reports

examined

Diamond

Head

building

an

Kewalo Basin.

offshore

sea ch.

The

Moana

Park

(see

map E).

One stu,dy

island as one way

in

to

massive

A stream

the feasibility of dredging the

and

a

reef 1949

of

between suggested

"improve"

Waikiki

park board endorsed the idea of a new island off Ala as a way to increase significantly the Implicit in the proposal was the

park's

size

assumption

that

"reclaimed" land was to be for recreational use.

Development

interests had other ideas,

industrialist Henry J. than a public park. to

the

reef

bidder

though.

In

Kaiser proposed an offshore resort rather

Kaiser urged the territory to acquire

and then lease the submerged land to

to develop a major tourist center.

the

1956,

and swimming pools (see map F).

the

board

of

title highest

Kaiser himself

posed spending $50 million to create a "Magic Island" of theaters,

1954,

pro-

hotels,

Two years later,

harbor commissioners and

the

in

chamber

of

commerce proposed moving Ala Moana Park to an offshore island and selling

the old park for hoteJ and apartment buildings (see

map

G).

The and, in

campaign for statehood altered the terms of

as a consequence, 1959

plans for the Ala Moana reef.

stimulated debate about Hawaii's future

economy,

implications

Territory

of Hawaii had formally acquired from the federal

Ala Moana reef,

Island

Statehood

important

ernment in 1958.

for the Magic

discussion

site,

with

which

the gov-

support coalesced for commercial development of as sentiment grew that tourism offered a

34

source

of

revenues and jobs that might offset declines in the sugar and

pineapple industries.

In

1959 the state contracted with a local engineering

firm

for a plan to reclaim the reef ~nd develop¡ a tourist resort. report

by Belt,

Collins & Associates was issued in

comprehensive Plan: construction The

The

1961.

The

Ala Moana Reef became the blueprint for

of the present Magic Island in the following

the year.

Belt Collins engineers planned reef reclamation and develop-

ment with two chief objectives in mind: beach-park riate

recreation for the people of Oahu" and

resort

plan

(1) "expansion of public

(see

hotels to supplement the Waikiki

of

existing peninsula at Kewalo Basin,

island in between the two peninsulas, (As the story turned out, the

The

map H) recommended creation of two peninsulas and

a peninsula along the Ala Wai boat harbor,

and

"approp-

district."

island: the

(2)

name

and

an excension a

crab-shaped

to be called Magic Island.

only the eastern peninsula was

Magic Island has come to

inappropriately, to this spit.)

an

be

attached,

built, somewhat

A system of roadways and bridges

was to link the proposed island with the eastern peninsula.

Belt the

120

Collins suggested three different acres of new land:

configurations

exclusive recreational use

(which

would

have almost tripled the length of public beach in the

Moana

area),

uneasy

alliance of public park and five hotels.

recommended private

heavy resort development (seven

hotels), The

for

and

Ala an

engineers

the latter proposal as a "compromise," arguing

that

resort construction could finance the public outlays for

reclamation and park development.

In this scheme, hotels were to

be built on the reclaimed eastern peninsula and a new park on the

â&#x20AC;˘ 35

island, The

with

most of Ala Moana Park converted to parking

state legislature approved plans to build

peninsula

as

•phase one,• and Henry J.

the

lots.

eastern-most

Kaiser completed it

in

The implications of resort development for the integrity

of

1962 at a cost of $3 million.

the

original design of Ala Moana Park were unimportant to policy

makers at the time. sioned

The Belt Collins master plan of 1961

envi-

preserving the park's banyan court but converting most of

the remaining site into huge parking lots, on the assumption that the

new offshore island could •replace" the

too,

would

lost

park.

Lost,

be the vista of ocean and surf from the park,

to be

replaced by a view of the new island and the hotel-studded peninsula.

The sented

plan to construct the two peninsulas and island business as usual for

Honolulu.

"Reclaiming•

repre-

submerged

lands

to invent valuable real estate was an historic pattern

urban

growth in the city.

In some ways,

the offshore park and

resort development was simply a 1960's elaboration of the nal

1920's

beautify

reclamation project.

the

city

Both represented

and enhance the local

imaginative rearrangement of nature.

of

economy

origi-

efforts through

to the

From this perspective, the

original landscape and architecture of Ala Moana Park were essentially

irrelevant.

preserve

Afterall,

the

park hardly qualified as

It was an

of untouched nature.

artificially

a

created

open space: the product of the forces that now proposed to transform it in respons~ to the new imperatives of the sixties.

When

almost

a

decade of public controversy

36

followed

the

construction of Magic Island in 1962,

it became clear that large

number of citizens had reconsidered the value of massive development.

In the course of the sixties, three factors encour-

aged reservations about an offshore resort. conditions economy.

Generally prosperous

dampened earlier fears about the health of the Growing

heightened quences.

coastal

concern

concern And,

about

about the

the

quality

project's

of

local

urban

environmental

life conse-

finally, backlash against the state's increasing

dependence on tourism raised questions about whether the development

might benefit visitors (and the tourist industry) more than

residents.

As one subsequent assessment concluded,

controversy

that

complex

Magic

on

accompanied the proposal Island focused attention

for on

pressures at work to promote development there.â&#x20AC;˘ 18

a

â&#x20AC;˘the public hotel-resort

the

tre~ndous

\J

As a result of the public outcry, Magic Island was set aside exclusively

for public recreation in 1970,

was built as a hotel site. jurisdiction

over

The state,

the peninsula,

eight years after it

which continues to

have

developed it into a park

and

administers it today as Aina Moana State Recreation Area.

6.0.

At plan

Planning for the Future: The 1970's

present,

for

Ala

the

City and County of Honolulu has a

Moana Beach Park that is more

curiosity than a useful guide to the future.

Wilson

Okamoto & Associates,

tural firm,

of

an

master

historical

Written in 1975 by

a local engineering and

architec-

the Ala Moana Beach Park Master Plan Report is

pro-

duct of both the debate over Magic Island and the popular percep-

37

tion in the 1970's of an energy crisis.

It contains some useful

specific recommendations but also some extraordinarily controversial

suggestions that render implementation unlikely and imprac-

tical today.

The

report is clearly a legacy of the Magic Island

versy of the previous decade. of

It begins by tracing the

planning attempts in the area,

thrust"

as

an

controhistory

characterizing their "general

effort â&#x20AC;˘to convert large areas of

the

park

to

massive parking lots, and then follow with strategic placement of hotels has

and specialized tourist attractions.â&#x20AC;˘

been

value

a "change in public and agency

of

open

especially

as

space,

natural areas

and

Noting that

attitudes

toward

recreational

it pertains to the interests of

there the

lands,

residents,~~ the

1975 plan announces â&#x20AC;˘it is time for a fresh approach."

Curiously

and

somewhat

anachronistically,

the

report's

"fresh" approach retained the scheme for massive coastal development (see map I).

Pointing out that the pressures for beachfront

parks

going to increase in the

were

only

future,

the

endorsed building the offshore island in the long-term, as

report as

well

short-range plans for land reclamation at both the new penin-

sula and the Kewalo basin. posed

The general land configuration

pro-

by Wilson Okamoto in 1975 was conceptually similar to that

proposed by Belt Collins in 1961,

even though Okamoto emphasized

park not resort development.

Truly "fresh~ was the proposal to evict cars from the Arguing

that

it was time "to de-emphasize the automobile,"

park. the

report advocated converting the park's t~oroughfare into a pedestrian and bicycle promenade.

Lighted at night or in the noonday 38

sun,

the promenade would be an attraction in itself,

see

and

physical

be seen.

In addition,

it would achieve

a place to "visual

and

cohesion" between the beach and the green space of

the

interior.

Particularly multi~story

controversial was the proposal to build

parking

structures in the park to

accommodate

cars prohibited from using roadway parking spots. built

sheds

the

One was to be

adjacent to the McCoy Pavilion and two at the outer

pheries.

three

peri-

The park's restrooms, food concessions, and maintenance

were

also

to be relocated into

these

creating three centralized service facilities.

parking

garages,

The visual impact

of the structures was to be minimized by attractive landscaping.

Especially

visionary

was the expectation that

disappear from the American scene altogether. at

cars

would

Anticipating that

some future date the automobile would become "an

undesirable

commodity," the planners in 1975 predicted that "public reappraisal of the role of the automobile will bring other transportation systems into dominance."

Toward this end,

they recommended

the

architecture of the proposed parking structures be "flexible," so that

the

spaces

could be converted easily to other

uses

than

storing automobiles.

Ultimately, the master plan of 1975 offered a set of contradictory recommendations.

Its stated intention of maintaining and

enhancing the open space of the park was seriously compromised by the

Much of

the

as the park came to resemble

the

suggestion of massive concrete service units.

rural character would be lost,

urban grid already surrounding it.

39

To its credit, state

the report viewed the municipal park and the

recreation area as a single unit for the purposes of coor-

dinated planning, and it did identify two significant issues: the need for more beachfront park space in .Honolulu and the that

the automobile had created at Ala M6ana.

car

is a blessing or curse,

But whether

the

reports of its imminent demise were

clearly exaggerated in 1975.

The nation may have become

what more aware of energy issues during the l970's, by

problems

路some-

but there is

no means consensus today that Americans want to give up their

automobiles

or even that the citizens of Honolulu want a

of mass transportation. the

1975

master

From this standpoint, the architects of

plan sound remarkably similar

to

early

designers also interested in using parks to achieve a reform vision. tory

of

system

park

part,!cular

Whether the goals are laudable or not,

the his-

urban parks suggests that planners experience

enormous

difficulty imposing designs that do not enjoy popular support.

The

suggestion

space

in

Honolulu through massive offshore development would be likely

to

encounter

similar

implementation.

to

public In

create more oceanfront 路 park

opposition were planners

addition to the arguments of

minded environmentalists and displaced surfers, price

tag

Financially abandon

(1975

dollars) is a major

strapped

grandiose

governments

plans

fiscal

solutions employed in the 1930's, tions and doing more with less.

40

of

propose

preservation-

the $24

million

deterrent

today.

in the 1980's

and look for some

to

will the

have

to

innovative

by scaling down their expecta-

I 7.0.

In

the

Conclusion: The 1980's

postwar period,

the history of Ala Moana Park

has

l h

been

inseparable

fifties

from the process of. city

and sixties,

American

planners,

planning.

In

the

"urban renewal" dominated the thinking justifying

massive expenditures of

of

federal

funds in city centers, usually with no concern for the historical fabric was

of the area to be "redeveloped.â&#x20AC;˘

While Ala

Moana

.

never the object of a redevelopment project as such,

the . target of a similar philosophy at the -time;

Park it was

a major infusion

of state money threatened to overwhelm the historic design of the original park.

In catch

the seventies,

became

the

words that informed thinking about Ala Moana Park and

its

future, whole

just as the terms gained popularity among Americans as a during

turned and

"environment" and â&#x20AC;˘ecology"

that

decade.

Environmentally-minded

their efforts to "saving the park," both from

citizens developers

from Ala Moana's car-borne visitors who seemed on the

verge

of loving it to death.

Now, cussions paid

More attention than ever before is being

and architectural features, history.

Register fifty

of the park.

to the integrity and significance of the

design their

in the eighties, "historic preservationâ&#x20AC;˘ animates dis-

Because

it

park's

as studies seek to

is a requirement of

old,

Ala

Moana Park is now in a

document

the

of Historic Places that listed properties be

years

landscape

National at

position

least to

be

considered for nomination to the register and, if found eligible, receive the legal protection that inclusion offers.

41

I

I

over people site. its

the years,

have

well-meaning (as well as

self-interested)

proposed a variety of different uses for

the

park

Remarkably, Ala Moana Park has maintained the integrity of original design,

in spite of a . history of past attempts

to

modify it.

In 1938, even as Ala Moana was under construction, a

territorial

legislator

impatient

with

the cost

and

pace

¡development proposed dividing the park into 335 residential and

of lots

leasing the choice property to finance operation of existing

parks.

Shortly

after World War II,

at Ala Moana,

memorial

plans were made for a

war

just as veterans of the first world

war

built the war Memorial Natatorium in

had

solution

Kapiolani

Park.

to the postwar housing shortage involved a proposal

erect

almost

400

park.

Others

suggested

complete

â&#x20AC;˘workers' cabinsâ&#x20AC;˘ at the western end an

amusement park

with artificial volcano,

for

More prosaic

Magic

of

One to the

Island,

proposals

have

included a freeway in the park and a ferry terminal on the beach.

Just recently,

a state legislator recommended building the much-

debated convention center at Ala Moana Park.

Like to

the plans in the fifties and sixties to move the

an offshore island,

tion

in common:

park

all of these P.roposals have one assump-

the park is merely empty land

fair game for any project that needs real estate.

and,

therefore,

For its users,

though, the park clearly represents open space and access to open ocean,

not merely empty land.

As anyone who has tried to find a

place to park on a weekend afternoon knows, Ala Moana has a large and devoted following among the local citizenry. ~tis, with the exception

of Sand Island and Keehi Lagoon,

42

the only beach

park

between

Waikiki and Ewa,

the city.~

the most densely populated section

of

t'

It is important to remember that the park is also a significant

cultural

landscape,

served from development.

Honolulu,

as

not just op~n ~pace momentarily It is a swatch of the urban fabric

much as the buildings and boulevards are,

park

places Ala

identity.

is a piece of history that reminds us that people

have not always been as they are today.

In this

Moana is a cultural artifact from the thirties

preservation

for its historical and architectural

of

and its

architecture and grounds help define the city's unique The

pre-

that

and

sense, merits

significance,

as much as for its recreational utility.

The

idea that Ala Moana is simply empty space available for

development park. will

been a persistent theme in the history

of

the

Because there is no reason to believe that the perception ever disappear entirely,

greatest . ening

has

this view represents

threat to the park's historic integrity~

the

It is heart-

to know that Ala Moana has shown a remarkable

maintain

its

original design over the last

five

single

ability decades,

to but

these periodic struggles also remind us that preservation battles never

win

of

the

future.

No

space -- whether the wild nature of a national park or

the

moment park

conclusive

victories.

The legal protection

can always be altered at some point in

cultural

landscape

an urban park

can ever

The only decisions for permanence in the

forever. business

of

the

are

multi-story

be

preserved

preservation

those that erect a dam on a wilderness river or parking

garage in an urban park.

perception persists that a park is merely empty 43

As long land,

as

a the

preserva-

tionists

will have to argue that parks are islands in time

connect the

present with the past â&#x20AC;˘

â&#x20AC;˘

44

that

NOTES

1.

Act 271, Sessions Laws of Hawaii for 1927, p. 346.

2. See for example: The Comprehensive Plan: Ala Moana Reef, Honolulu, Hawaii (Honolulu:" Belt, Collins & Assoc'Iates and Harland Bartholomew & Associates, 1961), ·p. ·a: Ala Moana Beach Park Master Plan Report (Honolulu: Wilson Okamoto &1\ssoc1ates, 1 9 ~ p. 2.

3.

"Ala Moana Park," Honolulu Star Bulletin & Advertiser, 11 September 1977: Minutes of the Shade Tree Commission, 10 October 1929, 6 November 1929.

The unpublished minutes are housed at the Department of Parks and Recreation, Honolulu.

4.

Catherine Jones Richards and Robert Oliver "Parks in Honolulu," Paradise of the Pacific, XLV 1932), pp. 21-24. ~ ----

Thompson, (December

5.

Honolulu Star Bulletin, 12 June 1946.

6.

Lewis Mumford, City Development (New York, 1945), 85.

7.

Honolulu Advertiser, 22 September 1953.

8.

The ·architectural description in this section, as well as portions of the material on Bent's park architecture, were written by Ann K. Yoklavich of SpencerMason Architects, Honolulu.

9. Loraine E. Kuck, "Honolulu's Banyan Court Garden," Paradise of the Pacific, LIX (Christmas 1947), p. 61.

10. Quoted by Steve Salis, "Playful Architecture: The Legacy of Harry Sims Bent," Hawaii Architect, 14 (June 1985), p. 12.

11. Lester McCoy, "Ala Moana Park, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii: outline prepared by and under the direction of the Park Board of the City and County of Honolulu,• [1936], p. 10. Typescript in files of Department of Parks and Recreation.

Also published under the byline of Jan Jabulka as "Hoana Park: Newest Link in Honolulu's Chain of Playgrounds," Honolulu Star Bulletin, 7 March 1936.

12. Park Board of the City and County of Honolulu, Parks: Annual Report for 1938 (Honolulu, 1938), pp. 3, 10.

Your

13. McCoy, "Ala Moana Park: Outline," pp. 1-2, 6.

14. Ibid.

15. Board of Public Parks and Recreation, Everybody£!!!.!!!!.!

Fun in Honolulu's Parks and Playgrounds: Annual Report for 1954 (Honolulu, 1954).

45

16. Phoebe Cutler, The Public Landscape of t h e ~ Haven: Yale University Press, (1985]), pp. 15-16, 19.

.Q.!!.!. (New

17. J. Frisbee Campbell and Ralph Moberly, Ala Moana Beach Erosion: Monitoring and Recommendations (Honolulu: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, 1978).

18. Ala Moana Beach Park Master Plan Wilson Okamoto & Associates, 1975), p. 2.:----

46

Report

(Honolulu:

APPENDIX

47

ALA MOANA BEACH PARK: CHRONOLOGY 1897

u.s.

c. 1900

Use of portion of present si t路_e a.s a dump begins

1920

Shade Tree commission established

1925

Outdoor Circle discusses idea of park on site with Governor Charles McCarthy

1927

May 3. Territorial legislature authorizes $200,000 Kewalo reclamation project through Act 271

1927

Oct. 25. Presidential proclamation deeds site to Territory

1928

Jan. 16. Territory deeds site to city for use as park

1928

Permit issued to Hawaiian Dredging Company for channel fro. Kewalo to Waikiki (Ala Wai)

1930

Jan.-Oct. Pilling of site with 400,000 cuyds. of 拢ill

1929

Shade Tree Commission discusses features of park

1931

July 7.

1931

July 10. General plan by Richards & Thompson approved

1931

路tandscape work begins with territorial relief labor; nursery established

1933

FERA and CWA assistance begins

1933

Harry Sims Bent hired as park architect

1934

Canal bridge completed

1934

July 27. P;esident Roosevelt dedicates entrance portals .

1936

Lester McCoy describes progress on park

1937

Sports Pavilion, Banyan Garden, Eskridge murals completed

1938

Proposal to divide park into 335 residential lots

1939

路Bowling green ~ompleted

1941-6

Military occupation of park

1946

Board of Parks and Recreation established

government assumes title to site from Republic of Hawaii

First meeting of Honolulu Park Board

48

1947

Name changed from Moana Park to Ala Moana Park

1948

Village of Ulu Mau opens

1948

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study of reef development

1949

Waikiki Beach Improvement Study by Law & Wilson recommends off-shore development

1949

Park roadway paved

1950

Plans approved for remodelled Oriental Lagoon

1951

Ala Wai entrance channel dredged

1952

City planning commission proposes off-shore island for use as park

1954

Children's Center in pavilion opens

1954

Kaiser proposes $50 million resort on Ala Moana Reef

1954-5

Sand beach constructed

1955

Park board orders study of offshore island

1957

Concession stand built on Diamond Head side

1958

Aug. 18. Federal government deeds reef to territory

1959

Statehood

1959

Department of Parks and Recreation established

1959

Bathhouse built on Diamond Head side

1960

Ulu Mau renovated

1961

Belt Collins comprehensive plan

1961

Phase one (eastern peninsula) approved

1961

Bathhouse and concession stand built on ewa side

1962

Kaiser builds phase one (Magic Island)

1966-7

Bowling green renovated.

1968

Bequest by Hazel Corning McCoy to city to build McCoy Pavilion in memory of her late husband

1969

Lifeguard towers built

1970

Decision that Magic Island is to be used only for recreation 49

1975

Wilson Okamoto master plan

1975

Completion of McCoy Pavilion

1976-7

Beach reconstructed with North Shore sand

so

LIST OF PARK TREES The variety of trees in Ala Moana Park today gives it an interest and diversity more commonly associated with a botanical garden than the typical city park. Included here are the scientific and common names of park trees.

The Department of Parks and Recreation has on file a planting map showing tree locations.

I

Peltophorum inerme Enterolobium cyclocarpun Erthrina variegata, var. orientalis Platymiscium pinnatum Adansonia digitata Mimusops elengi Catalpa longissima Messerschmidia argentea Samanea saman Noronhia emarginata Calophyllum inophyllum Pterocarpus indicus Cinnamomum camphora Spathodea campanulata Tabebuia pentaphylla Brassaia actinophylla Pimenta officinalis Agathis robusta Guaiacum officinal Tamarindus indicus Cordia Subcordata Sapindus saponaria Ligustrum ovalifolium Crescentia cujete Albizzia sp.

Bougainvillea glabra Olea europaea Tipuana tipu Elaeodendron orientale Swietenia mahagoni Guasuma ulmifolia Terminalia sp.

Dolichandrone spathacea Conocarpus erectus Heritiera littoralis Piscidia piscipula Brexia madagascariensis Parkia javanica Sterculia urens Bucida buceras Wallaceodendron celebicum Schotia brachypetala Sterculia foetida Lagunaria patersonii 51

Yellow Poinciana Earpod Wiliwili Roble Bottle Tree Pogada Yoke-Wood Tree Heliotrope Monkey Pod Madagascar Olive Native Kamani Narr a Camphor Tree African Tulip Pink Tecoma Umbrella Tree Allspice Tree Kauri Pine Lignum Vitae Tamarind Kou Soapberry Privet Calabash Tree Siris Tree Bougainvillea Olive Tipu False Olive Mahogany Bastard Cedar Mangrove Tru~pet Tree Buttonwood Looking Glass Tree Fish Poison Tree Brexia Parkia Gular Jucaro Banuyo Schotia Skunk Tree Whitewood

Scotch Attorney Redsilk Cotton Tree Ochrosia Fiddlewood Spanish Lime Banyan 路.Golden Shower Sausage Tree Breadfruit Hal a Brownea

clusia rosea aombax malabarica ochrosia elliptica Citharexylum spinosum Melicocca bijuga Ficus sp.

Cassis fistula Kigelia africana Artocarpus incisus Pandanus sp.

Brownea sp.

52

MAPS AND PLANS

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I

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58

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1-1

A SJIDY FOR POSSIBLE DEYELOPMENT

OF PORTIONS OF ALA MOINA REEF

LAND USE

LEGEND 8 SUMMARY LANO US[

ANO DETAILS OF THE PLAN

or PLAN •c"u

TOTAL LAND IU",•1..:,

""~• •wo PIIPMID 1111

<. OMMIIIIO~I.I SJA.l[

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Proposal by Belt Collins, 1961

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PUNNIIIG STUDY BY •u CDLi..•, • OSJO"::••·n. i,.lO

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AMBP - LONG RANGE PLAN LANDSCAPING

I.

Proposal by Wilson O~amoto, 1975

RANGE

PLAN

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