Three West Oahu Sites In The Running For Best Architecture

Voting for the 2013 People’s Choice Award, regarding the best examples of recent Hawaii architectural projects (built or unbuilt), is under way now through Friday when online balloting will end.

Sponsored by the Honolulu chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the list of distinguished entrants includes three already-built West Oahu entries: Pali Momi Medical Pavilion, the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus and the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. The winners of both the AIA members and people’s choice votes will be honored July 24 at the AIA Honolulu Design Awards Gala.

* Pali Momi Medical Pavilion – A former retail store converted into a two-level outpatient clinic for the nonprofit Aiea hospital, the pavilion’s centerpiece is its Women’s Center with a “serene, spa-like healing environment.”

* UH West Oahu – The design for the six-building, first phase of the campus springs from “the intrinsic idea of a distinct university within a vibrant neighborhood, with a rural, agricultural past and respect for community, history and typography.” The campus opened last year on the Ewa plain and already has boosted enrollment by 40 percent.

* Pearl Harbor Visitor Center complex – The LEED Gold certified center creates a “coherent visitor flow that enhances telling the important story of Pearl Harbor,” serving as the entry point for the Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin Submarine Park and Museum, Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pacific Aviation Museum.

For more detailed project descriptions and photos, and to vote in the seventh annual competition, visit aiahonolulu.org.