St. Augustine Church

Mid-century churches

A good chunk of Honolulu’s modern infrastructure was built after the Second World War resulting in what seems to be more modernist churches per capita than most American cities.

We singled out this big modernist beauty – as opposed to including it in our other [growing] church listings – because it’s so readily accessible to visitors staying in Waikiki and should not be missed.

Designed by architect George McLaughlin and opened in 1962, St. Augustine’s Catholic Church revels in its tropical modernism with an oversized copper covered A-Frame roof and twenty magnificently exaggerated window bays. Inside, its ribbed concrete vaulting reaches upwards from floor to ceiling and seemingly beyond, while its carved Koa wood interiors and beautiful stained glass depictions of the Catholic Church in Hawaii evoke a sense of history and wonder.

Regrettably the congregation was unable to acquire the land fronting Kalakaua Avenue which, at one time, provided St. Augustine’s with a beautiful ocean outlook and a much better vantage point from which to view the structure.

That land is now occupied by a Burger King (really).