UAA 2010 Conference Registration

Afternoon Tour Descriptions

We are pleased to offer the following assortment of tours for your enrichment and pleasure at the 40th Conference in Honolulu. Tours will take place Thursday (March 11, 2:30pm–5:30pm) and Saturday (March 13, 10:30am–4:00pm) (Actual ending times may vary.) Because tours run concurrently, it is not possible to participate in more than one tour per day. Please check back in November for details including tour dates, costs, and registration information.

Honolulu Architectural Tour

During the 2 1/2-hour tour participants learn about the architectural style and historical significance of 23 buildings dating from 1821 to 1995, including Kawaiaha'o Church, Iolani Palace, Washington Place, the YWCA building, Hawaii Theatre, state Capitol and Aliiolani Hale Site.

Visit to Papakolea Hawaiian Homestead Community

Papakolea is an urban Homestead community established with the passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921, which began a process of returning some lands to the Hawaiian people several decades after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1898. Located near Punchbowl crater, it is home to approximately 350 Native Hawaiian families. The Papakolea Community Development Corporation (PCDC) is a non-profit organization that was established by members of the community to support community self-sufficiency and to house a full range of supportive services in collaboration with Kula No Na Po`e Hawai`i and other community-based organizations. They will share the history of their journey in community development in the context of self-governance. They will also provide a history of the homestead and their efforts to maintain their history, cultural traditions and identity in the face of modernity and urban life. And they will discuss the lessons they have learned in creating university-community partnerships.

Tour of McCully-Moiliili, a historic working class urban neighborhood of renters slowly undergoing transition from low rise to medium rise development with concomitant issues of gentrification and displacement but still retaining it flavor with a Hawaiian royalty site and its special character because its Japanese cultural and community center, language school, cemetery, Buddhist temples, and flower shops. It is also the site of the club and memorial for the Japanese who fought in WWII in Europe. Planning issues include potential for land readjustment, and community benefit agreements for aging in place when, and if, the mass transit station comes into the neighborhood. Narrated by Prof. Luciano Minerbi an area resident and former member of the Neighborhood Board and Moiliili Community Center.

Chinatown Walking and Eating Tour

The financial and political center of the state, downtown Honolulu and its colorful Chinatown boast history, high-rises, a bustling harbor, and excellent Asian restaurants. Chinatown dates back more than 150 years, soon after the first migrant laborers arrived in the Islands from Southern China, Honolulu’s Chinatown is much more than a tourist attraction. It has been the focus of redevelopment efforts by the last two mayors.

Hanauma Bay—Ocean Resource Management

Recognizing the damage done by years of neglect and abuse by allowing some three million visitors annually, the City and County of Honolulu in 1990 laid out a plan to restore Hanauma to a clean, healthy state by reducing the number of visitors, establishing an education program, and instituting supportive restrictions. The culmination of the protection and preservation efforts are the major upper and lower bay facility improvements, the heart of which is the award-winning Marine Education Center, that opened in August 2002. Hanauma is the first Marine Life Conservation District in the State. This is one of the best-protected coves in the world for scuba diving or snorkeling with a diverse population of marine life and a large, rich coral reef. The bay floor is actually the crater of an ancient volcano that flooded when the exterior wall collapsed and the ocean rushed in.

Community Planning and Cultural and Sacred Sites: Ulupo Heiau Site Visit

Hawai`i has developed various policies and protocols for the preservation of cultural and sacred sites. For example, the environmental assessment process includes a cultural impact assessment to understand the impacts of development on cultural sites and practices. Moreover, many community organizations have initiated efforts to restore culturally significant sites. One example of historic preservation of a suburban cultural site is Ulupo Heiau, believed to be an ancient agricultural temple. The heiau structure consists of massive raised platform constructed of dry-stacked basalt rocks with underlying springs that feed the surrounding agricultural terraces. It is located within Ulupo Heiau State Historic Park (28 acres) on the windward side of Oahu. Currently, ‘Ahahui Malama I Ka Lokahi and Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club serve as co-curators to help maintain Ulupo Heiau. Within the past five years, these curators have initiated restoration of the cultural landscape with the removal of invasive vegetation and the planting of kalo (taro) and other Hawaiian cultivars such as ‘uala (sweet potato) and ko (sugar cane) to name a few. Additionally, the co-curators have promoted Ulupo Heiau as a place of learning, cultural practice, and healing. This site visit will present a history of these efforts and its history along with the current efforts to revitalize Ulupo Heiau as both a cultural and community resource.

Honolulu High Capacity Transit Corridor Project

The Honolulu High Capacity Transit Corridor Project is a 20-mile elevated rail line that will connect West O`ahu with downtown and Ala Moana Center. The system will feature electric, steel-wheel trains capable of carrying more than 300 passengers. It will safely and reliably move thousands of people per hour between 21 stations without taking away limited highway and road space. It will be the largest single public works project in the State’s history, providing an alternative form of transportation that will affect how O`ahu develops in the future.

The mobile workshop will provide participants with a pre-construction view of the project alignment and station locations. The 20-mile alignment passes through greenfields, suburban and urban neighborhoods. The project is on schedule to begin construction in late 2009, and will take about 10 years to build. The latest information on the project will be provided, including the status of the EIS, results of station design workshops, and coordination with the City and County’s Department of Planning and Permitting on planning around the stations. The workshop will involve a stop in Waipahu where participants will have a chance to view the neighborhood around a future station and hear from a planner involved in the TOD public planning process.

Tour de Trash

On an island, land is one of our most precious resources, and reducing our use of landfills is a critical goal of our waste management strategy. To move forward successfully with major recycling initiatives and alternative technologies, it’s imperative to engage the public in intelligent discussion. Tour de Trash offers an opportunity to get an up-close look at the recycling and waste processing technology in operation on Oahu today and peek behind those ‘Employees Only’ doors at island businesses that have instituted successful recycling programs. Oahu’s annual recycling rates have increased six-fold from approximately 100,000 tons in 1990 to more than 600,000 tons today. Based on a total waste stream of 1.76 million tons annually, that’s a 35 percent recycling rate—well above the national average of 27-32 percent. Combined with waste-to-energy, Oahu’s landfill diversion rate is at 57 percent, again exceeding the national average of 41-44 percent.

Community Development on the Waianae Coast

Visit community organizations developing social enterprises focused on youth development to combat poverty in a low income community.

The Wai‘anae Digital Media Hālau immerses students in the fundamentals and business of print and digital media arts, production, and post-production to give them the skills, knowledge, and experience required to pursue college and/or work in related industries, including internships and employment opportunities with the newly formed for-profit Mākaha Studios LLC, owned and operated by alumni of the Searider Productions program.

MA‘O Farm immerses cohorts of students in reviving cultural stewardship values while growing Hawai‘i’s organic agriculture sector through culturally and commercially relevant farming practices, school-based organic gardening programs that teach contemporary agriculture science in the context of traditional Hawaiian culture, and entrepreneurial-agricultural-educational youth leadership training that culminates in an Associate Degree at Leeward Community College.

Click here to register and pay online now for a tour.