institutional projects
Gina Mangieri approached me to help with a difficult Renovation at the Historic Yokohama Specie bank building on Merchant St. With major playground requirement issues, Historic preservation work, a whole new interior mezzanine to construct and massive plumbing requirements, along with an office in an old safe, the project successfully opened with eager parents waiting for enrollment in 2004. This was my first, but not last pre-school. The requirements for pre-schools and the regulators who need to make approvals make all pre-schoollwork as challenging as retail. The doors MUST open on schedule - fully approved and safe for the little ones.
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The Cole Academy in Kunia was a challenge: How to design a pre-school on 2 levels in a shopping center.....affordably.
The strategy was to use sound dampening instead of acoustic ceilings. Use garage doors to create large openings to the play area, and keep things as simple and as portable as possible while maintaining high security for pre-school children. A creative undertaking which turned into an enjoyable project! Since these two, I have worked on 1 other Cole Academiy and the Sounds of Success School in Aiea. |
Stay tuned - still under construction!
In 2011 Wayland Baptist University was an emerging satellite school in Hawaii founded in Texas. It's new head of school decided to establish a foothold in Mililani moving classes and operations from their Aiea office near the old Aiea library. The new home for WBU would be the Mililani Mauka Sales Center. The 15,000 sf building needed a gut renovation while maintaining a stifling layout of shear walls that would prove to help the design, and give some variables in the open interior campus plan. Stocked with all new furniture from Systems Center, it was one of the early classrooms in Hawaii that was outfitted with completely mobile tables and chairs. It made education and classroom setup entirely flexible. The theme of the project was discovery.... inspired from the post 1900 turn-of-the-century industrial revolution. Special Kudos to Jeffery A. Barnes, then head of school, and Henrique Regina, Assist ED at WBU. Excellent and very professional construction work by Goto Construction.
click here and scroll to bottom to learn more about what WBU said about the project.
Role by Hale Takazawa - Architect of Record
click here and scroll to bottom to learn more about what WBU said about the project.
Role by Hale Takazawa - Architect of Record
