2016 Chapter Awards
Outstanding Planning
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Master Plan (The Urban Collaborative, LLC)
The APA Hawai’i awards jury found that the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Master Plan exemplifies excellence in planning. The Plan has re-discovered the “garden city” concept, originally conceived for Hickam Field 80 years ago, and successfully applied it to the now combined JBPHH to create a more sustainable base. Bases are like cities and they need effective plans to guide development. But the old model encouraged sprawl. The new approach, first implemented for the Navy with this plan, uses strategies based on sustainability with urban growth boundaries, transit-oriented development, and preservation of historic and environmental resources.
Best Practice
Chinatown Action Plan (City & County of Honolulu)
The Action Plan scored very well for all evaluative criteria: originality, innovation, implementation, transferability, participation, effectiveness and results. The Action Plan required representatives of diverse disciplines in government to cooperate and set a new precedent for interagency collaboration within the City. The planning process used a variety of methods to engage stakeholders including property owners, real estate professionals, visitors to Chinatown, and local planners. These methods included a neighborhood walkabout, an Action Summit attended by 250 people, an interactive project website, and an Action Plan video. The Chinatown Action Plan has become a model for other communities engaged in TOD planning along the rail transit line in Honolulu.
Distinguished Service
Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr.
Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr. is the Mayor and chief executive of the County of Kaua‘i and the 2016 recipient of the Donald Wolbrink Chapter Achievement Award of the American Planning Association Hawai‘i Chapter. First elected in 2008 to fill the unexpired term of the late-Mayor Bryan Baptiste, Carvalho was subsequently re-elected in 2010 and 2014. Shortly after his election, Carvalho laid out a vision for Kaua’i as a healthy and vibrant community prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. He ushered in a distinct shift in Kaua‘i’s land use and transportation initiatives clearly grounded in innovative and best practice planning principles. In particular, he charged his administration to pay particular attention to the proven correlation between how the County handles mobility, planning and economic development with the need to collectively improve health outcomes of the island community via the built environment.
Implementation
Leeward Community College Education and Innovation Instructional Facility (UH Leeward Community College, PBR Hawaii & Associates, Inc.)
The Award Jury found that with implantation of these strategies, staff and students have become more aware of the benefits of sustainable design. In addition, the plan sufficiently reduced operational costs to offset the initial investment. The Leeward Community College Education and Innovation Instructional Facility thus serves as a model for the growing number of other sustainable buildings under planning and construction in Hawai‘i.
Urban Design
Downtown and Kalihi Neighborhood Transit-Oriented Development Plans (City & County of Honolulu, Dyett & Bhatia)
The APA Hawai’i Awards Jury found that the plans provide thoughtful, long-range planning with an emphasis on the public realm. They integrate land-use and transportation planning principles to encourage transit ridership and walkability. Crafting the plans’ vision, goals, and specific development programs entailed an extensive bottom-up, community-driven process aligned with citywide goals and strategies. The community engagement process supplemented resident surveys with community outreach activities and was very well designed and executed. Planning processes that resulted in the plans are transferable to other station area plans, and could potentially serve as a model in similar contexts. The plans also helped garner support from a broad range of partners, which could be pivotal in moving forward in a timely manner. The jury commends the plans for their quality of research, analysis, and presentation.
Transportation Planning
Lihue Civic Center First Phase Improvements Instructional Facility (County of Kauai; PBR Hawaii & Associates, Inc.)
While the first phase improvements are simple, they have initiated the revitalization of Lihue’s core and are bringing back a sense of place to that has long been missed by the community and desired by those who work at the Civic Center.