Cities across the country and the globe are applying the concept of "adaptive reuse" to historic buildings, preserving some part of a structure but writing a modern story.
Two architects in France won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2021 — not for a fancy design, but for transforming existing structures from the inside out.
"I think for environmental reasons, for cultural reasons, it makes a lot of sense to first see how we can work with what's in front of us," Honolulu SHADE architect Dean Sakamoto told The Conversation.
Sakamoto, along with an investor group, purchased the Liberty Bank Building at 93 N. King St. in Chinatown for about $4 million last year, according to KITV.
Designed by noted architect Vladimir Ossipoff, it just turned 100 years old. Sakamoto recently threw a party to celebrate its history and future.
"Some of the finer elements of the design here that Vladimir Ossipoff created is the spatial sequence of how you move into this building from the street," he said. "You walk up a stair and you see there's this double-height banking space with daylight coming in from the west and the north side."
Sakamoto and his team have been refreshing the interior, removing past renovations to bring it closer to its original design.
"My hope is that our design office can be here and everything else around us gets more lively. The building here, the banking hall that we're sitting in, I really believe that it should be kind of a semi-public space that relates to and supports culture and commerce in this district and in the state in general," Sakamoto said.
"Cities, like people, go through cycles. And I really believe and I think the evidence is pretty clear that this district is on the upswing," he added.
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 20, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
