Architect Glenn Mason says he’s been lucky — he’s been able to work on “some of the most important historic sites in Hawai‘i” throughout his decades-long career.
Often recognized for his work in historic preservation, Mason’s portfolio includes work on a number of historical sites across the Islands and Guam, including ‘Iolani Palace, Lunalilo tomb, the former Advertiser building, Hulihe‘e Palace, Kalahikiola Church and Kawaiaha‘o Church. He also serves on the O‘ahu Historic Preservation Commission.
The founding principal of MASON will be awarded the Medal of Honor by the American Institute of Architects Hawai‘i State Council and the Hawai‘i Architectural Foundation at an upcoming awards gala.
AIA Hawai‘i and HAF will present the second annual Huaka‘i Awards Gala from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, at the Pacific Club. Find more information and tickets here.
The Medal of Honor is the council’s highest distinction, awarded since 1998 to architects who advance the profession and inspire fellow practitioners, a recent announcement from AIA Hawai‘i and HAF noted. It’s not awarded annually and Mason is just the 12th recipient of the honor.
In an interview last month, Mason told Aloha State Daily that he’s been involved with the award since the beginning and did the write-ups on nearly all previous winners. So it’s “very weird,” he says, to be on the other side.
Although he initially had mixed feelings about receiving the award — he was in favor or recognizing another architect — he told ASD that he’s happy to receive the award, “but I’m not much of an awards person, so I’m going with the flow.”
His interest in historic preservation goes back to his college days. Even as a student at the University of Michigan, Mason says he was interested in the field.
“Now, I can’t say that I thought of myself as a preservationist,” he told ASD. “They didn’t have a preservation program, but I was interested in older buildings. They had an observatory structure there that just fascinated me, so I worked on that a little bit. But my first couple of years in architecture, I really did almost none of that work because I worked for Val Ossipoff’s office, and that’s not what they were doing.”
Opportunities, though, presented themselves later.
When asked how he got into architecture to begin with, the response is simple.
“Well, I like building stuff,” Mason says. “That’s the core of it.”
He took a few years of architectural drafting in high school and “kind of liked that.”
After graduating high school, Mason says he was interested in pursuing either architecture or math, “and then calculus kind of convinced me that I was not cut out for math and so I gravitated toward architecture.”
“It just is a natural fit,” he says. “Preservation is a natural fit for me because I have always thought of myself as a problem solver, and the challenge with old buildings in particular, among other things, is how do you bring those buildings up to date and still respect the buildings, still respect the historic nature of the buildings, and that … thought process is the real challenge for me. It’s all a puzzle, and I kind of like puzzles, figuring out how to do things. Sometimes, you get surprised by the answers that you come up with.
“But you have to start by saying, ‘I want this particular building or structure or whatever to retain as much of its original look or feeling as possible, but on the other hand, I’ve got to insert a fire suppression system. How do I do that?’ And you figure out the way to do it with the least amount of damage to the structure. That is not as straightforward as one might think. Sometimes, you have to think a little bit out of the box, and I’m just a little bit more suited to that.”
Mason received the President’s Award in 2013 and the Frank Haines Award in 2014, both from the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Previous Medal of Honor recipients include Carol Sakata (2023), Chris Smith (2021), Daniel Chun (2019), John Hara (2017), Donald Goo (2015), Kenneth Brown (2004), Ernest Hara and Elmer Botsai (2002), Frank Haines (2000), Charles Sutton (1999) and Vladimir Ossipoff (1998).
Also being recognized at the upcoming gala are:
- David Sellers, principal architect with Hawai‘i Off Grid Architecture and Surf Block Maui, who will receive the Gordon Bradley Humanitarian Award. According to the announcement, this award recognizes an architect who has “given their time and energy to benefit society, including serving on charitable boards, donating time to assist humanitarian endeavors and providing guidance for individual growth.”
Sellers is a board member or Habitat for Humanity, was previously president of AIA Maui and continues to work closely with Family Life Center on ‘Ohana Hope Village, a transitional community for survivors of the 2023 wildfires that ravaged parts of the Valley Isle and destroyed much of Lahaina town, and has provided free building plans to landowners seeking to rebuild, the announcement notes.
(ICYMI: Sellers was one of the architects that recently met with lawmakers as part of the AIA Hawai‘i State Council’s architecture advocacy day). - Larry Heim, former owner of HONBLUE, will receive the Paepae I Ka Pōhaku Award, which recognizes an individual or organization from the community that has “contributed to, and promoted, the public’s appreciation of architectural design and responsible approaches to the built environment.”
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
