The Capitol is quiet Thursday morning as a handful of people wander around the central atrium. A small group, decked out in red, make their way through security.
They’re some of 16 architects representing the AIA Hawai‘i State Council — itself comprised of the AIA Honolulu and AIA Maui chapters of the American Institute of Architects — who were meeting with legislators as part of the organization’s architectural advocacy day.
The aim was to engage with lawmakers to address key priorities and showcase the role architecture plays in shaping Hawai‘i’s communities.
“Most of our priorities have to do with housing,” Julia Fink, executive vice president of AIA Hawai‘i, told Aloha State Daily. “Of course, we’re interested in housing affordability, adaptive reuse. We’re looking at the SMA [special management area] processes, trying to make sure that it’s still fair but maybe a little bit more efficient.”
The group also supports updates to the State Historic Preservation Division processes, she notes.
“There are lots of bills this session about shifting SHPD timelines or their processes, so we want to get a better understanding of how that would play out in practice so that the architects can actually get their projects to go through while still respecting the important historical land that the buildings would be on.”
Fink says advocacy is a big part of what the association does.
“Advocacy is so important because the rules that are made here at the Capitol affect day-to-day practice,” she says. “When we talk about code advancement, that affects how every building is designed. We talk about resiliency, what kind of building materials are available, what kind of energy sustainability pieces can we push forward to make sure we’re meeting our state goals and that the buildings are working better for us. They should be great places for us to live in and work in and play in, and places that people want to go. Architects are very passionate about creating healthy, safe places for people to be.
Upstairs, Krithika Penedo, Julie Lam and Marni Tam, one of four groups meeting with lawmakers Thursday, sit across from Hilo state Rep. Sue Keohokapu-Lee Loy, who said she “kind of fan girls over AIA.”
“I think their grasp of a very complex subject, it’s just wondrous to me,” Keohokapu-Lee Loy told ASD. “… I have a couple of bills around housing, which actually will touch the construction codes, so getting their feedback is just so valuable.”
Legislation introduced by Keohokapu-Lee Loy and other lawmakers includes House Bill 1967, which calls for the development of a permitting workforce pipeline; House Bill 1968, which proposes the development of a statewide permitting intake platform; House Bill 1964, which would require the State Building Code Council to provide training to state and county permitting agency employees; and House Bill 2606, which would establish a working group within the State Building Code Council to develop proposals for an off-site construction program. So far, the bills have passed first reading and been referred to various committees, but no public hearings have been scheduled as of Friday.
Penedo, Lam and Tam later met with Mānoa Rep. Andrew Takuya Garrett. During their conversation, Garrett, chair of the House Committee on Higher Education, asked several questions about the architecture workforce, the impact of AI technology on the profession and how to address affordable housing needs.
Much of the time spent at the Capitol was just meeting representatives “and letting them know about the American Institute for Architects,” Penedo told ASD. While some discussion centers around specific bills, “today is for us to introduce ourselves to folks who don’t know us yet, how we can be a resource, what we do and where we can provide expertise in some of these upcoming bills.”
Lam says it’s important for AIA to do this kind of advocacy “because we are the last ones to know about all the changes that come out and it affects us tremendously. We don’t want to be in that position anymore, so we’d like to help because we have the expertise and we really like to just be a resource for everyone.”
“I think one of the main reasons that we want to be here is because right now, we’re dealing with a housing affordability crisis and then just a lack of housing,” David Sellers, principal architect with Maui-based Hawai‘i Off-Grid Architecture and Engineering as well as Surf Block Maui, told ASD. “Obviously as architects, we know a little bit about housing and there’s a lot of things that affect that.”
Building codes, for example, is one area of expertise, and there are a lot of bills introduced by lawmakers that affect change with those, says Sellers, who’s also a board member of the AIA Hawai‘i state chapter.
“When that happens, we love it, one, that there’s action taking place that directly affects us, but we also want to have the opportunity to provide testimony and just talk story.”
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
