Aloha Tower reopened to the public after more than five years of disuse to celebrate the landmark’s centennial.
The tower closed in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the observation deck was not conducive to the six-foot social distancing that became standard practice at the time, Dre Kalili, the state Department of Transportation’s Deputy Director for Harbors, told Aloha State Daily.
During the closure, Kalili said the Harbors Division took advantage of the emptiness to upgrade the tower’s fire suppression system and its aging elevator. But even as things began to reopen after 2021, additional improvement projects continued.
One of those improvements should catch people’s eyes from far away: the tower has been repainted to more closely resemble its original coloring.
Kalili said the tower was repainted in a camouflage pattern during World War II, and was later painted a bright teal in the 90s to complement the newly built Aloha Tower Marketplace, a decision she said sat poorly with historians. The new off-white coat of paint was chosen to return the tower to its coloration from 100 years ago.
“We wanted her to look beautiful,” Kalili said. “I think she’s never looked better.”
Read more about the history of Aloha Tower from ASD history columnist Desoto Brown here and here.
Inside the tower, new and improved amenities have been installed: the bathrooms have been renovated, and air conditioning has been installed. Kalili said the guardrails on each of the observation deck balconies have been enlarged to prevent people from climbing over them, although the gaps in the bars remain wide enough to accommodate the view.
A new exhibit now sits at the center of the tower’s observation deck, detailing a timeline of the harbor and the tower, along with historical photographs. Kalili said DOT “wanted people to understand what they’re looking at.”
While members of the public can visit the tower during daytime hours, Kalili said further work is still ongoing. Additional work to repair the mast atop the tower — which made the tower the tallest building in the state when it was first built — is still pending, and may require temporary closures in the future.
The renovation project began with an $8.5 million budget, but received additional federal funding, as the site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for 50 years.
Kalili and other state officials celebrated the tower’s reopening and centennial at a blessing ceremony Thursday. State Rep. Darius Kila said that after five years of closure, “there’s a whole generation that doesn’t know Aloha Tower,” and added that he hopes the tower can find new life as a gathering place and a “symbol of resilience.”
Kalili told ASD that the tower and the piers are the only places where the public can easily witness Honolulu Harbor in action, which makes the tower an important place to help people appreciate the importance of the maritime industry to the state. She said roughly 85% of goods in the state come in from out-of-state, and most of those enter through a seaport like Honolulu Harbor.
The view from the southwestern balcony of Aloha Tower is Kalili’s favorite, she said, because it emphasizes this: it looks straight out over the facilities on Sand Island and over the Honolulu Channel, which she called “the most critical waterway in the whole state.”
While the blessing ceremony is over, a public centennial celebration, including food trucks and a drone show, will be held Friday, Oct. 16, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
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