Economies of the City: Honolulu’s Financial Plaza of the Pacific

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.17.1.2018.3639

Keywords:

architecture, public art, commerce, Hawai'i, Brutalism

Abstract

This paper concerns one monumental architectural structure that defined Honolulu’s business economy and approaches to urban planning in the Central Business District (CBD) during the 1960s – the Financial Plaza of the Pacific. As indicated from its moniker, the design and construction of the edifice highlighted Hawai‘i’s physical location as a global crossroads. The international vision of this “commercial condominium”, and by extension Honolulu, addressed the effects of urban blight and suburban flight that plagued the CBD in the years leading up to, and following, U.S. statehood. The merger of three corporate enterprises (Castle & Cooke, Bank of Hawaii, and American Savings and Loan) at the Financial Plaza of the Pacific functioned as means to display corporate reinvestment in the district. The architects of the project, Leo S. Wou & Associates and Victor Gruen Associates, desired to create a spatially unified environment with outdoor public space and art projects as loci for human interaction. Ultimately, the Financial Plaza of the Pacific reveals the ways in which Honolulu operated – and continues to operate – as a living city spurred by enterprise and revitalization.

Author Biography

Kelema Lee Moses, Occidental College, California

Kelema Lee Moses is an Assistant Professor of art history at Occidental College. Her teaching and research combines historical perspectives with discussions about critical contemporary issues related to the built environment of the United States and Asia-Pacific region. Her work has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the East-West Center at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has published in the edited volume, Colonial Frames/Nationalist Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture and Modernity, The Chicago Art Journal, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History.

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Published

2018-04-25

How to Cite

Moses, K. L. (2018). Economies of the City: Honolulu’s Financial Plaza of the Pacific. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.17.1.2018.3639