2023 Design Award Winners

AIA Honolulu is pleased to announce the winners of the 65th Annual Design Awards, recognizing architectural design excellence for 2023. This is Hawaii’s oldest design competition — held annually since 1958 — recognizing the year’s best in architectural projects.

2023 AIA Honolulu Design Awards Booklet
Available this September!

All winners and entrants are featured in our special Design Awards insert included in the September issue of the Hawaii Business Magazine.

AIA Honolulu has maintained an excellent partnership with aio Media Group, publisher of Hawaii Business Magazine. This alliance positions our members within a core readership of business and professional leaders as well as potential private clients.

The following exemplary projects and architects were recognized as Design Award winners from the distinguished entrants.

View the Past Winners Since 1958

Congratulations to the 2023 Design Awards Recipients!

Award of Excellence:

Island Studio (Residential)

Firm: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Contractor: Armstrong Builders
Project Location: Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Photo Credits: Nic Lehoux

Island Studio is a flexible environment – a guesthouse, creative studio, and gathering place – for our clients to pursue varied creative endeavors and host visitors. The studio is located across a public surf access path from our client’s main residence on Oahu’s south shore. While situated within a dense residential neighborhood, the design embraces indoor/outdoor living and interweaves our client’s passion for art and agriculture with open, light-filled volumes to create a sense of abundance. Island Studio includes private guest quarters, artist workspaces and offices that support our client’s art foundation, and support areas for large gatherings.

Project materials are inspired and influenced by our client’s diverse interests and the studio’s oceanfront location. The soaring pavilion roof is constructed with hand-shaped Douglas fir glulam beams, utilizing carpentry techniques that recall traditional Hawaiian canoe building. Durable exterior materials, including cedar siding, metal roofing, and stainless-steel flashing, were selected to withstand the corrosive marine environment. Along the studio’s southern side, growing rods support a range of climbing vegetables while creating a shaded breezeway outside the studio. The seamless introduction of aquaponics provides nutrient-rich aquaculture water from tilapia ponds below the planter boxes to a range of hydroponically grown vegetables.

Award of Excellence:

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi Campus (Unbuilt)

Firm: Brian Strawn, AIA & Karla Sierralta, AIA / University of Hawaii Community Design Center (UHCDC)

Client: University of Hawaii at Hilo
Project location: Hilo, Hawaii Island, HI
Photo credits: Tom Takata Photography

The site is organized around a series of physical alignments, responding to the nine cultural pathways of Nā Honua Mauli Ola, developed by members of the consortium. These alignments include the axis established by the existing Haleʻōlelo, which marks a connection between the waters of Hilo Bay and the sacred mountain Mauna Kea.

Three buildings frame a programmable open green that can host a wide variety of events:

Pūnana Leo o Hilo / Pre-School: A simple structure embracing a protected center that allows caretakers to keep an eye on the keiki from every space in the building while providing direct connections to the outdoors.
Hale Kuamo’o / Production Facility: A series of open-plan, stacked, and flexible spaces, adapting to design processes, exhibitions, and events, exposing “behind the scenes” for open learning.
Graduate Center & Mokuola Honua: Minimally touching the site, a series of rooms provide spaces to learn, work, or sleep along a network of wooden decks that pixelate into the landscape.

Two large models were built to socialize the final proof-of-concept designs. The “Zoom-Out” site model illustrates the alignment of the structures with the Star Compass and the Mauna Kea axis. The “Zoom-In” construct is composed of four parts that can be displayed together or separately, supporting a variety of stakeholder discussions and fund-raising events.

Honorable Mention:

Waikoloa Middle School Classroom Building (Institutional)

Firm: WRNS Studio

Client: State of Hawaii Department of Education
Contractor: Nan Inc.
Project location: Waikoloa, Big Island, Hawaii
Photo credits: Andrew Richard Hara

The Waikoloa Middle School Classroom Building’s initial goal was to meet the Living Building Challenge benchmark—pushing the boundaries of sustainable design while embodying regenerative, resilient, and healthy principles. To achieve energy efficiency, extensive energy modeling was conducted, informing the design choices and allowing for optimal energy performance. The building incorporates passive design strategies, which maximize natural lighting and ventilation, while minimizing the need for artificial lighting and cooling systems.

The building successfully accommodates two science classrooms, an art classroom, a special education (SPED) classroom, and four typical classrooms. Additionally, faculty spaces support the needs of the teaching staff.

Several distinguishing features were added to the design—including science lanais adjacent to a rainwater garden, an art lanai, a large courtyard gathering area, and an outdoor classroom with a teaching wall and a shade canopy. Furthermore, a water treatment room was incorporated to facilitate rainwater collection and storage in a cistern.

One of the key aspects of the project was the lengthy integrated design process, which involved continuous charrettes with administrators and staff. This collaborative approach ensured that all stakeholders had a voice in the decision-making process, resulting in a building that met the specific needs of the school community.

Honorable Mention:

Waikiki Market (Interior Architecture)

Firm: Lowney Architecture

Additional Design Firms: Looney Architecture (Restaurant Design); Interstore (Grocery Display Casework & Fixtures)
Client: Food Pantry Ltd.
Contractor: Swinerton Builders
Project location: Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Photo credits: Adam Taylor Photography

Waikiki Market, situated in the podium of Lilia Waikiki, offers a commanding view of lively Kuhio Avenue in the heart of Waikiki.

The new store concept, which was designed with the Waikiki community in mind, focuses on local food, spanning 32,000 square feet across the first and second floors. It features a food hall with two restaurants and a neighborhood-serving grocery store, complemented by high ceilings and ample indoor/outdoor seating.

Local artists have contributed dual-purpose art pieces that represent the community's expressions and act as wayfinding tools throughout the space. Carefully sourced materials from local suppliers, including wood grain panels, accents, and cut lava stone veneer, are prominent, evoking an aesthetic reminiscent of the Hawaiian landscape.

Honorable Mention:

Papa'aloa Homestead (Residential)

Firm: Craig Steely Architecture

Client: Gary Beuschel and John Kruse
Contractor: Hilo Coast Construction
Project location: Pāpa'aloa, Big Island, Hawaii
Photo credits: Darren Bradley

The Pāpa’aloa Homestead is an off-grid home sitting at the top of a gently sloping pasture with panoramic views along the Big Island’s Hāmākua coast.

The openness of the terrain that allows for this view comes at the expense of exposure to intense winds and rain during the wet season and sun and heat during dry times. We committed to designing a house open to the land and the sky, that not only created an awareness of the movement of the sun through the day, but also offered protection from the extreme elements.

We addressed this by creating a spoke-and-wheel layout with an exterior segmented concrete ring that shields the house from extreme weather while providing deep lanais to enjoy living outside. The atrium at its center is filled with Hāpu’u fern, Ama’u fern, Ti plants and orchids. Rooms are organized based on their orientation to the sun as it passes through the day. Each of the eight quadrants present and frame a different view of the mountain, the coastline and the sea.

Community Impact Award + Hawaii Energy Award for Excellence in Energy-Efficient Design:

Ho‘okupu Center (Institutional)

Firm: G70

Client: Kupu Hawaii
Contractor: J. Kadowaki, Inc.
Project location: Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Photo credits: Olivier Koning Photography

The Ho‘okupu Center’s facilities support Kupu programs, offering youth real-world and transferable job-skills training in the conservation, sustainability, and culinary fields. Originally constructed as a shed for drying fishing nets, it became a canoe shed and warehouse and fell into a state of disrepair. Now, it is a vibrant community center.

Housing a commercial kitchen, training rooms, classrooms and meeting spaces, the center offers opportunities for the broader community, such as new/innovative events, exhibitions/educational workshops, engagement in conservation, sustainability, culture, and community service.

The Hawaiian word ho‘okupu, means “offering.” The word also carries the connotation of creating an environment that encourages things to kupu, or “sprout”, and grow. Inspired by both definitions, the Ho‘okupu Center is an offering to the community, where Kupu programs develop Hawai‘i’s next generation of environmental stewards. The center’s aim is to move Hawai‘i toward a more resilient and pono (virtuous) future by engaging its youth members and the broader community in service and ‘āina (land)-based education.

A sustainable facility, the Ho‘okupu Center includes a Net-Zero energy rated photovoltaic system, an EV charging station, farm-to-table preferred cuisine and natural lighting systems.

Distinctive Detail Award:

Beyond Wayfinding: Prototypes

Firm: Brian Strawn, AIA & Karla Sierralta, AIA, University of Hawaii Community Design
Center & Kūha'o Zane, Nalani Kanaka‘ole and Sig Zane, Sig Zane Kaiao

Client: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Project location: Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
Photo credits: Tom Takata Photography

This project, co-designed with Native Hawaiian practitioners and designers, responds to a call for a new signage and wayfinding system for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus. Informed by one-on-one interviews, shadowing prospective students and their families on campus tours, and input from cross-departmental faculty, researchers, and students, the project aims to physically represent Native Hawaiian culture and language on campus.

A layered framework that acknowledges the complexity of place considers overlapping environmental, cultural, historical, and Indigenous knowledge systems. Typical inquiries around navigation: “Where am I?” and “Where do I want to go?” are supplemented with the more nuanced question of “What is significant about this place?”

Located across three main pedestrian axes, twenty-one Building Signs and four ‘Ili Markers comprise a network of elements that help students and visitors find their way while learning more about place. These axes overlay the boundary lines of ʻili ʻāina, small subdivisions of land within the Hawaiian land division system, that crisscross Mānoa Valley.

Hawaiian body alignment and navigational practices inspire a series of components that point beyond the specific site of each sign or marker, focusing viewers on surrounding wahi pana, places rich with stories often passed from generation to generation. This practice embeds viewers in a broader network of cultural stories, histories, and natural ecosystems.

People's Choice Award:

Brigham Young University Hawaii Science Building (Institutional)

Firm: AHL

Additional Design Firm: Chernoff Thompson Architects (Lab Designer)
Client: Brigham Young University - Hawaii
Contractor: Okland Construction
Project location: Laie, Oahu, HI
Photo credits: Andrea Brizzi Photography

A three-story mosaic tile mural located on the entry lobby wall featuring a DNA helix, the building block of life, leaves no doubt about the purpose of Brigham Young University-Hawaii’s Science Building. “Science on display” was the design mantra, focusing on accelerating student immersion and interaction. Labs are open to view from corridors, the roof houses a celestial observatory and infrastructure is displayed in the open ceilings. Coral-inspired materials for the walls highlight the connection to the science of ‘aina and nature.

The design incorporated green storm water infrastructure, using bio-swales, vegetated filter strips and rain gardens. Rainwater from the roof in downspouts is daylighted as visible ‘water features’ integrated into the landscape design.

Light-filled labs, classrooms, study areas and outdoor gathering spaces provide attractive places for collaboration and innovation.

Hawaii Home + Remodeling Editor's Choice Award:

Coral House (Residential)

Firm: de Reus Architects

Additional Design Firm: Philpotts Interiors (Interior Design)
Contractor: Colt Construction
Project location: Maui, Hawaii
Photo credits: Travis Rowan

At its heart, this vacation house was designed as a sanctuary where a multigenerational family can share experiences and create memories. Overlooking Maui’s southern shore, with views of Haleakala’s mountainous landscapes, the Pacific Ocean and nearby islands, this home’s design supports active lifestyles and the enjoyment of nature.

The many sustainable strategies incorporated in the design of this home led to its LEED Silver certification. Large roof overhangs provide shade for the occupants and aid in keeping interior areas cool. Native vegetation within the landscape and on the second story green roof beautify the property, cool the surrounding exterior, are drought resistant and encourage pollinators.

The owner’s program requirements included ensuring that the tradewinds be utilized for natural ventilation, that the home be family-friendly, unpretentious, and of a “quiet and restrained” modern Hawaiian character with materials selected for their contribution to the architectural concept, for durability and for low maintenance. The home utilizes stormwater management to help protect the natural aquifer. Metal-clad doors and windows were selected for durability and local Ohia hardwood was used to decrease the building’s carbon footprint and because its beauty enhances the owner’s experience within the home.

Mayor's Choice Award:

Beachfront Sea Level Rise Adaptation (Unbuilt)

Firm: University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture Environmental Research and Design Laboratory; Sea Grant UH Center for Smart Building and Community Design; School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Climate Resilience Collaborative

Project location: Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Rendering Credit: Desiree Malabed, Georgina Casey, Eric Teeples and Gerry Failano

The beachfront study site is subject to flooding from direct marine inundation, storm-drain backflow, and groundwater inundation, as well as compound flooding from precipitation and king tides. It is one of the areas in Waikiki exposed to annual high wave flooding soonest and represents a prototypical building type with below grade parking, commercial first floor, and residential upper floors, with an adjacent open space.

First, the team proposed design criteria for the height of the building’s occupied space in 2050 and 2100. Since current FEMA flood insurance rate maps do not account for future sea level rise, this demonstrates thought leadership and provides desirable information to the design community. Designers and policy makers may consider, critique, and modify the proposed design flood elevations to advance resilient building design guidance in Honolulu or in the Waikiki Special District.

Next, the team created site-specific renderings to depict future water levels, make the flood adaptation tangible, solicit and record public feedback, and provide reports for use by future designers and policy makers. The prototypical renderings foster a common understanding of adaptation strategies around which people can discuss issues of sequencing, policy, and cost at an area-wide scale (e.g., Waikiki Special District). For example, by illustrating the cisterns and bioretention volume needed to retain a large rain event on-site, other property owners may evaluate the feasibility of on-site stormwater retention.

Student Design Awards Recipients

Established in 2016, the Student Design Awards were created to honor student achievements in the design studio and provide a forum for student design excellence to be celebrated beyond the academic setting.

Honorable Mention:

Bishop Museum (Graduate)

Student: Zoe Angelopulo

School: University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture

This redesign of the Bishop Museum’s entry sequence takes inspiration from water in a number of forms, and the idea that everyone and everything in Hawaii has reached its shores by crossing our aquatic borders. Formed from initial principles aiming to learn from how water moves around island chains, working off those shapes and keeping principles of Polynesian navigation in mind while addressing issues of circulation and exposure to the elements across the site led to a design focused on community, accessibility, and comfort.

Speaking to the idea of designing for well-being from the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, one of the main conclusions that came out of initial site analysis studies was how exposed to the elements visitors are by the current design. There are few shaded spots and the site can be hot, so to remedy this the proposed design features two different tree canopy stories to provide shade and guide wind through the planted “island” berms. By adjusting elements of thermal comfort across the site, people have access to a cooler, more comfortable journey, as well as a shaded picnic area.
The site also features ADA-accessible slopes across all features to be as welcoming and inclusive for as many people as possible.

Honorable Mention:

FoodHub Avenue (Undergraduate)

Student: Airon Castaneda

School: University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture

Food sustainability and sovereignty have always been integral to Hawaiian culture and the locals. We have been practicing this principle for many years. Our lives revolved around cultural practices such as cultivating, preparing, and eating of food. However, we became heavily dependent on imported foods due to the expanding population and a significant shift to an urban lifestyle.

Food Hub Avenue establishes a social-ecological food hub to educate and foster a transparent relationship between agricultural production and users. This includes a pedestrian avenue, outdoor classrooms, a community hall, demo farms, and an open area for recreational activities.

FoodHub Avenue is designed as an educational infrastructure to inform users and future generations about Hawai’i’s food system and traditional practices. Integrating the social-ecological zones, also known as the “Moku system,” will educate everyone about our biocultural resources and remind us why taking care of our land and resources will keep Hawai’i resilient and self-sustainable.

Honorable Mention:

Seed-To-Waste Center (Undergraduate)

Student: Thanh Nguyen

School: University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture

In the heart of the Molokai community is a visionary food hub known as the Seed-To-Waste Center. The food hub embodies the complete journey of food, from growing crops from seed to recycling waste from your plate.

Multipurpose classroom spaces will provide opportunities to educate different types of knowledge, preserving traditional Hawaiian farming techniques and values for future generations. While emphasizing eco-friendly practices and promoting locally sourced products, the center introduces on-site training and actively involves locals in every stage of the food cycle: from planting to harvesting, processing to packaging, prepping and cooking to serving, composting, and distributing fertilizers for on-site farming.

Spaces are designed to accommodate small and large events, ensuring that visitors and locals can enjoy working and visiting this food hub regardless of time or circumstance. By coming to Seed-To-Waste, community members can learn, work, share, gather, and produce, creating a more sustainable Molokai for all.

People's Choice Award:

Pixel Forest (Undergraduate)

Student: Hieu Huynh

School: University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture

The Yujin Building was the line of defense for South Korea, preventing the communist tanks from moving to Central Seoul. This project preserves a historic mega building and repurposes it to fit today’s society. The design intention is to preserve the unique features of the building while building a live-work-play community.

The ground floor is repurposed into restaurants, a bookstore, cafes, green space, and a parking structure. The 274 foot long facade of the 2nd and 3rd floors is preserved because it is a unique feature of the Yujin building and what it is known for. Keeping the facade allows the rich history of the building to live on. These floors become shared offices where young entrepreneurs can work and explore the designed landscape on site. The fourth floor contains lounge areas and gyms for residents to connect and stay active. Also, a public rooftop for guests and residents.

The residential area is designed using the concept of pixels where space can be added or subtracted. This concept allows the open void space for ventilation and views of the surrounding landscape. The pixel effect provides residents with a balcony for plantings and daily activities.

2023 Design Awards Jury

Juror selection is based upon locating impartial individuals who represent high levels of achievement, design quality and professional integrity. Every attempt is made to create a balanced panel that will provide fair judgment to all entries. We are excited to introduce our 2022 jury, who this year consists of five individuals, two of whom are members of an AIA chapter outside of Hawaii. Three jurors are Hawaii residents to ensure that the uniqueness of Hawaii Architecture is recognized and appreciated by non-local jurors.

Introducing our 2023 Esteemed Jurors!

Jessica Figenholtz, AIA, LEED AP (AIA Charlotte), Associate Principal at Perkins & Will
Louis Fung, AIA (AIA Honolulu), Principal at FAI Architects
Hazel Go, AIA (AIA Honolulu) Associate & Project Architect at WCIT Architecture
Chris Hong, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP (AIA Honolulu), Principal at Chris Hong Design LLC
Michael Lee, RA, NCARB, LEED AP (Seattle), Principal at Bench Dog Architects

Members of the design awards committee whose firms have submitted in that year may not be present and/or may not participate during any aspect of jury deliberations.