bio
In 1974 at the age of 6, Hale Takazawa moved to a suburban development on the slopes high above Pearl Harbor. The development was agricultural land covered with sugar cane giving way to increments of wood framed houses. His playground was the homes under construction. From graded lots, to slabs, to framed houses, to added plumbing and electrical and drywall and finally finishes, the phases of infrastructure development and home construction became an everyday backdrop for play, salvaging, collecting construction waste material, and all things that boys do.
It was no wonder that after matriculation from Iolani School, Hale entered UCLA’s engineering school - notorious for it’s strong research, professors and weeding process. It was at UCLA that he discovered art history - and a near photographic memory of the slides - because he sketched every single slide shown during lectures. On a lumpy couch in student housing during his sophomore year at UCLA, it finally occurred to Hale that although engineering was a creative profession, it was not as connected to the arts as architecture was. The seed was planted by his art teacher Julie Seistreem, who introduced him to 3d-sculpture and jewelry making at Iolani School, and then suggested applying for architecture school. So a return to confer with Ms. Seistreem that summer led to the conclusion that he would enter graduate architecture school.
Focusing his UCLA engineering studies on structural and civil engineering, Hale graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering. And with that, he went straight to the University of Oregon School of Architecture - famed for it’s cadre of design theory teachers and its world leadership in environmental sustainability. At the University of Oregon, Hale was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship to work in the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory under Prof. G.Z. Charlie Brown for environmental research. He also won a Graduate Teaching Fellowship for architectural media teaching architectural freehand drawing, sketching, and presentation under Prof. Glenda Utesy. The focus and interest of Hale’s studies focused on design theory, process, and the use of architectural sketching to explore the art. In 1993, Hale graduated as a Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon.
During the summer of 1993, Hale made a pilgrimage to New Mexico with the intent to meet Bart Prince, Architect. - driving alone from Oregon south through California through Nevada and Arizona, he stopped in every major city to meet with various architects and tour their work and practices. In the recession following the 1st Gulf War, there was no employment, but there was time to learn and teach. Hale visited the offices of Mickey Meunnig at Big Sur, Frank Ghery and Eric Owen Moss in Los Angeles, Arcosanti and Taliesin West in Arizona, and a few other stops. He also got to meet Bart Prince in New Mexico. Bart’s advice was simple... “understand construction very well.” No simple task. Because understanding is the beginning, and then manipulation of the known systems to create the unique is where architecture truly becomes extraordinary.
Upon returning from the adventure, Hale returned to Hawaii to do his 3 year architectural internship under Joe Ferraro and Gerald Choi. The famed firm of Ferraro Choi and Associates specialized in the most exquisite interior architecture, and trained Hale to execute the highest levels of architectural perfection. They also gave him an opportunity of a lifetime, to work on the design and research team for their project at the geographic South Pole - the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Along with assisting on design, Hale teamed with a national group of engineers to create the building code guidelines for the station which was published and then reviewed by the National Science Foundation and a Blue Ribbon panel of senate appointed national experts. The experience gave Hale a singular experience: to understand the building blocks, flexibility, limitations, and spirit of modern building codes, and how to manipulate it to create applications for an extreme and isolated environment.
In 1996, at the end of the internship, Hale left Ferraro Choi to join Fabrizio Medosi in the design for the Maui Ocean Center. The most recent aquarium ever built in Hawaii. His assignment was to provide design and lead the engineering team for the design of the shark tank building which includes a glass walk-through tube, a large wall to ceiling glass wall, a whale exhibit and a mesmerizing jelly-fish tank. Other buildings Hale worked on were the reef building, the retail building, the administration building, and the filtration system building which filtered the entire aquarium's water.
At the completion of design, Hale moved to New York City and worked at OMNI architects under the Yugoslavian national award winning architect Mike and his wife Leila Vujosevic. It was at OMNI that Hale learned to build an architectural firm. As their only employee, he helped build the firm to 9 people in less than 2 years. The projects ranged from apartment developments, to whole brownstone renovations to entire floors on Wall Street and in the World Trade Center towers.
In 1998 Hale moved back to Hawaii to join Pacific Atelier as a partner with Fabrizio Medosi. In the years following, Hale helped build the firm and worked on a myriad of projects including many residences around the islands, over 500 units of condominiums along the Kona Coast, the Dole Plantation store expansion (which receives nearly 2 million people each year), the American Automobiles Association Headquarters, Central Pacific Bank Lihue Branch, and the Cole Academy Pre-Schools. Hale’s most famous past client so far is the estate of David Geffen who commissioned Pacific Atelier to work with Ed Tuttle from Paris to design his home in Kahala.
On September 15th 2010, Hale launched a new firm under his own name, starting with projects like the master planning for the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center’s Kunia Village (a new sustainable model for Hawaii’s diversified agriculture industry), Just Tacos ( a new restaurant chain in Hawaii), and Wayland Baptist University ( a new school for the Texas-based University offering classes in Hawaii).
At the close of 2012, Hale worked in collaboration with Sanford Hasegawa on the development of a new concept spurred by the flourishing Maker movement of the early 21st century. The project evolved into industrial design and manufacturing to support: kitchen millwork, interior furnishing, custom fixturing, custom millwork and casegoods, built-in interior finishing, architectural glass, and other detail intensive features. The result was a service built to help contractors and designers bring their design concepts to fruition - into live, custom-designed products.
87zero grew into a local luxury powerhouse of design, and custom products for the interior industry. Working on projects such as the Historic IBM Building Sales Center to Ward Village, various restaurants, shops and custom luxury homes, Hale's 4 year exercise in millwork and furniture design allowed him to zoom into the details of the building arts. Fully equipped with architecture and interiors custom luxury design, Hale turned to studies and research on solving some of the riddles of the 30,000 housing unit shortage in Hawaii. Ideas of micro-kitchen design, plug-and-play kitchens, and other prototypes emerged from that in 2016 as Hawaii's movement toward "affordable" mid-range housing took the forefront of the construction sector.
In 2017 Hale returned to architecture working as a solo practitioner once again. Tooled with more knowledge and practice to create exquisite architectural and interior integrated designs, the focus of the practice is to raise the level of architectural quality throughout Hawaii and the world. Oahu Plumbing & Sheetmetal, also known as Senplex Corporation commissioned Hale for a complete redesign of their factory and headquarters. The 34,000 sf program included sheet metal processing, plumbing, air-conditioning design and servicing, and a department for engineering as well as technical and business services. The experience allowed Hale to use his knowledge of furniture-making and industrial processes from millwork and casework to translate over to local sheetmetal and mechanical production processes for Senplex. He then did it again for Reflections Glass in 2018 - a production glass processor and installer for commercial and residential contracting.
In the years between 2016-2020 Hale also worked on luxury homes in various communities focusing on intricate millwork and design solutions for homes from Manoa to Portlock, from Kailua to Hauula. All of them had one thing in common: high complexity, and intricate millwork.
From 2019-2021, Hale also supported the projects of his old teachers: Ferraro Choi and Associates. During a shortage for architectural expertise, larger firms call on smaller colleagues to help on large projects... And for Hale this meant working on helping Hawaii Pacific University move their Kaneohe campus to Waterfront Plaza in Kakaako. Hale's portion was to provide production permit and construction drawings for the HPU nursing labs and classrooms. After HPU with Ferraro Choi, they invited him again to work with their interiors team to head up production for the Veteran's Affairs Outpatient Clinic with Hunt Development. The 92,000 sf facility is under construction in 2022 and features outpatient services ranging from Radiology, Dentistry, Labs, general practice, physical therapy and counseling services for our Veterans and their beneficiaries. The common thread through these projects was not only size - but high complexity and again...high attention to human workflows and processes.
Also in 2019, Joe Ferraro, then President of AIA Honolulu tasked Hale with creating the Design for Risk & Resiliency Committee. This committee was intended to address design and coordination with other professionals and institutions to deal with climate change issues. Hale immediately received board approval to expand the membership of this committee to non-AIA members in order to build a true forum of people who could address climate change issues from various agency, non-profit, and corporate industry perspectives. The membership has grown to more than 90 leaders in 2022.
The committee examines both pre-event measures and post event response to climate and possible existential environmental threats. The group has become a think-tank of ideas and solutions that is now reaching into grants from FEMA and other emergency management agencies to look at decentralizing our utilities in order to reduce the impact that climate change has on our current infrastructure.
In February of 2023, Hale joined Joe Ferraro at Ferraro Choi and Associates to help lead their green sustainability program and to provide leadership and navigation for the firm. The main thrust of the firm would move into creating self-sufficient buildings, the ultimate solution and culmination of the evolution of buildings as a response to climate change and Sea Level Rise (SLR). Consequently the study of self-sufficiency in buildings has led to advancement into projects that not only respond to SLR, but have the potential to solve difficult problems related to affordable housing and homelessness.
With commercial work at Ferraro Choi, and residential work with HTArchitecture, Hale continues an exciting adventure of challenges that can be applied to all aspects of the architecture profession.
Currently, Hale thinks a lot about the design of building self-sufficiency in remote locations like Greenland and Antarctica for the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, which have extraordinary logistical parameters, as well as extreme climate conditions. This also helps to inform design thinking about Hawaii's vulnerabilities and response to climate change as it too is a remote location faced with extreme climate.
Hale continues to work with other colleagues and students at the University of Hawaii Architecture School to expand these ideas into working projects and applications. To follow the latest ideas of what Hale is working on follow his blog here.
Summary of Education
1986 Iolani School
1990 B.S. Civil Engineering, UCLA
1993 M. Architecture, University of Oregon
1993 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon
2004 Planning and Design for a New Generation of Seniors: A Focused Look at Retirement, Harvard GSD
2006 Project Budgeting, Concept Estimating, and Life-Cycle Costing for Economic Sustainability, Harvard GSD
2024 AIA Resiliency and Adaptation Certificate, American Institute of Architects
2024 Graduate Affiliate Faculty, School of Architecture, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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It was no wonder that after matriculation from Iolani School, Hale entered UCLA’s engineering school - notorious for it’s strong research, professors and weeding process. It was at UCLA that he discovered art history - and a near photographic memory of the slides - because he sketched every single slide shown during lectures. On a lumpy couch in student housing during his sophomore year at UCLA, it finally occurred to Hale that although engineering was a creative profession, it was not as connected to the arts as architecture was. The seed was planted by his art teacher Julie Seistreem, who introduced him to 3d-sculpture and jewelry making at Iolani School, and then suggested applying for architecture school. So a return to confer with Ms. Seistreem that summer led to the conclusion that he would enter graduate architecture school.
Focusing his UCLA engineering studies on structural and civil engineering, Hale graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering. And with that, he went straight to the University of Oregon School of Architecture - famed for it’s cadre of design theory teachers and its world leadership in environmental sustainability. At the University of Oregon, Hale was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship to work in the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory under Prof. G.Z. Charlie Brown for environmental research. He also won a Graduate Teaching Fellowship for architectural media teaching architectural freehand drawing, sketching, and presentation under Prof. Glenda Utesy. The focus and interest of Hale’s studies focused on design theory, process, and the use of architectural sketching to explore the art. In 1993, Hale graduated as a Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon.
During the summer of 1993, Hale made a pilgrimage to New Mexico with the intent to meet Bart Prince, Architect. - driving alone from Oregon south through California through Nevada and Arizona, he stopped in every major city to meet with various architects and tour their work and practices. In the recession following the 1st Gulf War, there was no employment, but there was time to learn and teach. Hale visited the offices of Mickey Meunnig at Big Sur, Frank Ghery and Eric Owen Moss in Los Angeles, Arcosanti and Taliesin West in Arizona, and a few other stops. He also got to meet Bart Prince in New Mexico. Bart’s advice was simple... “understand construction very well.” No simple task. Because understanding is the beginning, and then manipulation of the known systems to create the unique is where architecture truly becomes extraordinary.
Upon returning from the adventure, Hale returned to Hawaii to do his 3 year architectural internship under Joe Ferraro and Gerald Choi. The famed firm of Ferraro Choi and Associates specialized in the most exquisite interior architecture, and trained Hale to execute the highest levels of architectural perfection. They also gave him an opportunity of a lifetime, to work on the design and research team for their project at the geographic South Pole - the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Along with assisting on design, Hale teamed with a national group of engineers to create the building code guidelines for the station which was published and then reviewed by the National Science Foundation and a Blue Ribbon panel of senate appointed national experts. The experience gave Hale a singular experience: to understand the building blocks, flexibility, limitations, and spirit of modern building codes, and how to manipulate it to create applications for an extreme and isolated environment.
In 1996, at the end of the internship, Hale left Ferraro Choi to join Fabrizio Medosi in the design for the Maui Ocean Center. The most recent aquarium ever built in Hawaii. His assignment was to provide design and lead the engineering team for the design of the shark tank building which includes a glass walk-through tube, a large wall to ceiling glass wall, a whale exhibit and a mesmerizing jelly-fish tank. Other buildings Hale worked on were the reef building, the retail building, the administration building, and the filtration system building which filtered the entire aquarium's water.
At the completion of design, Hale moved to New York City and worked at OMNI architects under the Yugoslavian national award winning architect Mike and his wife Leila Vujosevic. It was at OMNI that Hale learned to build an architectural firm. As their only employee, he helped build the firm to 9 people in less than 2 years. The projects ranged from apartment developments, to whole brownstone renovations to entire floors on Wall Street and in the World Trade Center towers.
In 1998 Hale moved back to Hawaii to join Pacific Atelier as a partner with Fabrizio Medosi. In the years following, Hale helped build the firm and worked on a myriad of projects including many residences around the islands, over 500 units of condominiums along the Kona Coast, the Dole Plantation store expansion (which receives nearly 2 million people each year), the American Automobiles Association Headquarters, Central Pacific Bank Lihue Branch, and the Cole Academy Pre-Schools. Hale’s most famous past client so far is the estate of David Geffen who commissioned Pacific Atelier to work with Ed Tuttle from Paris to design his home in Kahala.
On September 15th 2010, Hale launched a new firm under his own name, starting with projects like the master planning for the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center’s Kunia Village (a new sustainable model for Hawaii’s diversified agriculture industry), Just Tacos ( a new restaurant chain in Hawaii), and Wayland Baptist University ( a new school for the Texas-based University offering classes in Hawaii).
At the close of 2012, Hale worked in collaboration with Sanford Hasegawa on the development of a new concept spurred by the flourishing Maker movement of the early 21st century. The project evolved into industrial design and manufacturing to support: kitchen millwork, interior furnishing, custom fixturing, custom millwork and casegoods, built-in interior finishing, architectural glass, and other detail intensive features. The result was a service built to help contractors and designers bring their design concepts to fruition - into live, custom-designed products.
87zero grew into a local luxury powerhouse of design, and custom products for the interior industry. Working on projects such as the Historic IBM Building Sales Center to Ward Village, various restaurants, shops and custom luxury homes, Hale's 4 year exercise in millwork and furniture design allowed him to zoom into the details of the building arts. Fully equipped with architecture and interiors custom luxury design, Hale turned to studies and research on solving some of the riddles of the 30,000 housing unit shortage in Hawaii. Ideas of micro-kitchen design, plug-and-play kitchens, and other prototypes emerged from that in 2016 as Hawaii's movement toward "affordable" mid-range housing took the forefront of the construction sector.
In 2017 Hale returned to architecture working as a solo practitioner once again. Tooled with more knowledge and practice to create exquisite architectural and interior integrated designs, the focus of the practice is to raise the level of architectural quality throughout Hawaii and the world. Oahu Plumbing & Sheetmetal, also known as Senplex Corporation commissioned Hale for a complete redesign of their factory and headquarters. The 34,000 sf program included sheet metal processing, plumbing, air-conditioning design and servicing, and a department for engineering as well as technical and business services. The experience allowed Hale to use his knowledge of furniture-making and industrial processes from millwork and casework to translate over to local sheetmetal and mechanical production processes for Senplex. He then did it again for Reflections Glass in 2018 - a production glass processor and installer for commercial and residential contracting.
In the years between 2016-2020 Hale also worked on luxury homes in various communities focusing on intricate millwork and design solutions for homes from Manoa to Portlock, from Kailua to Hauula. All of them had one thing in common: high complexity, and intricate millwork.
From 2019-2021, Hale also supported the projects of his old teachers: Ferraro Choi and Associates. During a shortage for architectural expertise, larger firms call on smaller colleagues to help on large projects... And for Hale this meant working on helping Hawaii Pacific University move their Kaneohe campus to Waterfront Plaza in Kakaako. Hale's portion was to provide production permit and construction drawings for the HPU nursing labs and classrooms. After HPU with Ferraro Choi, they invited him again to work with their interiors team to head up production for the Veteran's Affairs Outpatient Clinic with Hunt Development. The 92,000 sf facility is under construction in 2022 and features outpatient services ranging from Radiology, Dentistry, Labs, general practice, physical therapy and counseling services for our Veterans and their beneficiaries. The common thread through these projects was not only size - but high complexity and again...high attention to human workflows and processes.
Also in 2019, Joe Ferraro, then President of AIA Honolulu tasked Hale with creating the Design for Risk & Resiliency Committee. This committee was intended to address design and coordination with other professionals and institutions to deal with climate change issues. Hale immediately received board approval to expand the membership of this committee to non-AIA members in order to build a true forum of people who could address climate change issues from various agency, non-profit, and corporate industry perspectives. The membership has grown to more than 90 leaders in 2022.
The committee examines both pre-event measures and post event response to climate and possible existential environmental threats. The group has become a think-tank of ideas and solutions that is now reaching into grants from FEMA and other emergency management agencies to look at decentralizing our utilities in order to reduce the impact that climate change has on our current infrastructure.
In February of 2023, Hale joined Joe Ferraro at Ferraro Choi and Associates to help lead their green sustainability program and to provide leadership and navigation for the firm. The main thrust of the firm would move into creating self-sufficient buildings, the ultimate solution and culmination of the evolution of buildings as a response to climate change and Sea Level Rise (SLR). Consequently the study of self-sufficiency in buildings has led to advancement into projects that not only respond to SLR, but have the potential to solve difficult problems related to affordable housing and homelessness.
With commercial work at Ferraro Choi, and residential work with HTArchitecture, Hale continues an exciting adventure of challenges that can be applied to all aspects of the architecture profession.
Currently, Hale thinks a lot about the design of building self-sufficiency in remote locations like Greenland and Antarctica for the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, which have extraordinary logistical parameters, as well as extreme climate conditions. This also helps to inform design thinking about Hawaii's vulnerabilities and response to climate change as it too is a remote location faced with extreme climate.
Hale continues to work with other colleagues and students at the University of Hawaii Architecture School to expand these ideas into working projects and applications. To follow the latest ideas of what Hale is working on follow his blog here.
Summary of Education
1986 Iolani School
1990 B.S. Civil Engineering, UCLA
1993 M. Architecture, University of Oregon
1993 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon
2004 Planning and Design for a New Generation of Seniors: A Focused Look at Retirement, Harvard GSD
2006 Project Budgeting, Concept Estimating, and Life-Cycle Costing for Economic Sustainability, Harvard GSD
2024 AIA Resiliency and Adaptation Certificate, American Institute of Architects
2024 Graduate Affiliate Faculty, School of Architecture, University of Hawaii, Manoa
contact us