Modernist Libraries

Mid-century modern buildings

Representing the only Statewide system of libraries in the United States, the Hawaii State Public Library System  has twenty-three branches on Oahu and fifty locations in total, with a handful of their modernist buildings still in use. We’ve listed a few of them and will continue to add more when we can …click on addresses below for Google map locations

Waikiki-Kapahulu Library (2680 Ala Wai Blvd.) – This nicely preserved tropical modernist library was designed in 1951 by Cyril Lemmon (Lemmon, Freeth, Haines & Jones) and features a natural sandstone facade, floor to ceiling windows and gently sloping, intersecting gable roofs. Located at the corner of Kapahulu Ave. and Ala Wai Blvd.

Liliha Public Library (1515 Liliha Street) – Built in the early 1960s and designed by Taliesin Fellow, Stephen Oyakawa, this concrete structure boasts a distinctive bubble lattice facade and a streamline moderne look. Located in the 1500 block of Liliha Street, an area known for its many modernist low-rise commercial buildings.

Kailua Public Library (239 Kuulei Rd., Kailua) – Slender columns, nice brickwork, clerestory windows and a gorgeous metal Brise soleil is what you see when approaching the main entrance to this fifty-plus year old low-slung little gem of a building. If you’re on Oahu’s Windward (eastern) side near Kailua  it’s worth the detour.

There’s also the centrally located Brutalist   McCully-Moiliili Public Library (2211 S. King Street); the low-lying rectilinear Pearl City Public Library (1138 Waimano Home Rd., Pearl City) which has nice clerestory windows; and in Wahiawa, off the H2  Highway, is the gorgeous Wahiawa Public Library (820 California Ave., Wahiawa), circa 1964 which reflects a New Formalist  aesthetic.

There are even more modernist libraries at the Manoa Valley campus of the University of Hawaii!

Visited 5012 times, 7 Visits today

Tagged In Architecture,Building,Freeth,Haines & Jones,hawaii,Honolulu,kailua,kapahulu,Lemmon,liliha,MCM,Mid Century Modern,Modernism,Modernist Libraries,public library,See,stephen oyakawa and Waikiki

Related Listings

USS Arizona Memorial

1 Arizona Memorial Place, Honolulu, HI, United States

View More Details

Mid-century modern structures The USS Arizona Memorial marks the final resting place for many of the 1,177 sailors killed aboard the battleship USS Arizona during the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl… Read more…