Between Mountain and Sea

HAWAIIANS have long been accustomed to rubbernecking tourists.

Last week, however, it was the islanders themselves who flocked to downtown Honolulu to gawk at their state's newest wonder, a $26.6 million capitol.

The building handsomely demonstrates what can happen when an imaginative private architect designs a major U.S. government building. By any measure, it was a personal triumph for an architectural team headed by San Francisco's celebrated John Carl Warnecke, 50. His design for the building, which took more than three years to construct, blends beauty, symbolism and enough conveniences to satisfy any bureaucrat.

The edifice occupies an eight-acre site, separated by a magnificent East Indian banyan tree from lolani Palace, Hawaii's government house since 1882. Warnecke's design is laden with Hawaiian symbolism. It stands, islandlike, in a reflecting pool. Its open, cone-shaped roof resembles a volcano, and allows 22 inches of yearly rainfall to drain off from courtyard to pool. Aware of the Hawaiians' traditionally easy relationship with their legislators, Warnecke located the two houses on either side of the great court, their main chambers just inside the entrances.

The court, opening toward the mountains (mauka) and toward the sea (makai), is the unifying element in the building's design and leads to a park filled with palm trees and tropical plants. Warnecke hopes that the park will eventually be expanded, and has developed a master civic-center plan that calls for the eventual demolition of lesser government buildings that are close to the new capitol. "Every great capitol has a large central space historically," he says, "one that raises man toward his aspirations." In all, Warnecke is satisfied that his project accurately reflects the state's character: "Hawaii is a new mountain state, an open island state, both in its attitudes and its diverse population. It's a very vibrant, modern way of living there."

Although there was some initial criticism of the legislature because the building was not erected on a more scenic site, both the public and the politicians are now delighted with what Warnecke has wrought. Governor John A. Burns, who thought the ceiling in his fifth-floor office "too squat" and literally raised the roof five feet at a cost of $300,000, observed: "It's the finest capitol in the nation." And the senators, after presenting the state with a bill for an additional $150,000 to equip their offices with such minor amenities as sinks and closets, happily agree.

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