SHADE Summer Institute

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Chinatown Action Summit Recap

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On Saturday, June 27, 2015 the Chinatown Action Summit was held at the Golden Palace Restaurant and hosted by the City and County of Honolulu and partnered with local legislators and organizations. 

The summit was a great success with approximately 240 individuals in gathering the opinion of the representatives from the city, elected officials, and various businesses from the arts, community, and civic groups in focusing on how implementations of the safety and cleanliness; art, culture, and historic preservation; wayfinding and pedestrian access; new economic opportunities can be improved for the Chinatown of the future. While also refining strategies for longer term projects associated with the preparation of the rail transit and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). With the information gathered the SHADE Institute will continue to build upon the cause to better Chinatown. 

A big thank you to all of the participants, volunteers, and support!

If you missed the summit, your opinion and concern on the development of Chinatown is still important. Click the following link to take a quick survey to help improve Chinatown: http://www.connecthonolulu.com/

SHADE Summer Institute Mentors

These mentors have come from various fields of urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and more to work with the SHADE Summer Institute Interns on the Chinatown Urban Acupuncture Project. 

Jason DeMarco, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C brings experience and talent through all phases of design and production on Institutional, Commercial, Residential, and Specialty Projects.  He is knowledgeable with a wide range of design software, including Building Information Modelling, that facilitates integrated design collaboration among team members and efficient qualitative production.  Jason excels at building common ground and facilitating effective communication among team members and stakeholders.

Denise P. Bekaert, R.A., A.I.A. is an architect in New York and Hawaii with degrees in architecture & urban studies.  She has worked for almost 30 years in design and construction documentation and administration, as well as master planning and site design.  Her projects have included inner city high-rise residential, tenements, historic landmark buildings, new construction for the elderly, gut rehabs, transient/homeless housing & facilities, and single family homes.  She has also designed commercial restaurants, exhibit spaces, and community meeting places.  She is a Certified Disaster Response and Safety Assessment Inspector.  For the past several years she has provided forensic investigations & analysis, and has recently relocated permanently to Oahu.

Thomas Lee is Vice President of Development for Hunt Hawai’i. Prior to joining Hunt in 2006 Thomas worked for a home builder in Portland, OR, and assisted a commercial real estate broker with owner/tenant representation for over 1 Million square feet of Class A office/flex space in the East Bay, California. As Vice President at Hunt, Thomas manages various development projects in Hawai'i with multi-disciplinary roles. He has overseen the leasing & development of over 1 Million square feet of industrial and commercial space at both Waikele & Kalaeloa. He worked on Palamanui, a 725-acre master-planned community on the Big Island [and soon to be home to new UH Community College at Palamanui]. Thomas also managed a 1,500-unit 400-acre oceanfront rental property in Ewa Beach. On that property, he also managed all aspects of the state's largest beach nourishment & shoreline revetment project. Thomas is highly engaged and involved in the sustainable aspects of his projects and a proponent for good urban planning, sustainable living, and green construction.

Mr. Fujimori is a senior urban planner with SSFM, a registered landscape architect, and a LEED AP. His experience includes both planning and design projects for private and public clients in Hawaii, on the mainland U.S. and many international countries of Asia, Central America and the Middle East. The planning projects range from campus master planning, community plans, town centers, parks and recreational plans, transit and highway facilities, and bikeway plans. Mr. Fujimori's designs include urban transit corridors, corporate campuses, institutional sites, urban streetscapes, parks and recreational facilities. He incorporates principles of smart growth and sustainability in his work and has a strong focus on Complete Streets. Mr. Fujimori is a member of SSFM's Planning Group and focuses on urban design and large scale planning projects.

SHADE Summer Institute Interns 2015

My name is Woody Simpson and I was born and raised in Honolulu. I received my Bachelors of Environmental Studies with a focus in Environmental Planning and Policy from the University of Colorado and I am currently pursing my Doctor of Architecture at the University of Hawaii. My career goal is to become an architect and help Hawaii achieve its goal of self-sustainability through environmental design. I enjoy working on aquaponics, participating in beach clean-ups, and surfing with family and friends.

Benjamin Aiken, from New Jersey, is a fourth year Architecture Student at Washington University in St. Louis.  In addition to architecture Ben is receiving minors in Environmental Engineering and Education.  He hopes to practice environmentally intelligent urban architecture.  His passions span teaching in inner city schools in St. Louis to participating in triathlons.  Ben spent the spring semester of 2015 in Florence designing a school.  Last summer he biked alone across the US from St. Louis to New Jersey.

Erin Chow was born and raised in Oahu. She is currently a twenty-three year old art student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who will be graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Art this Summer. She was accepted into the Doctor of Architecture program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which she will be entering this Fall 2015. Ultimately, she seeks to apply the artistic process to the functional requirements of architecture in order to better society.

Jiaan Sun comes from Shanghai, China. She attended Shanghai University, where she received her B.A. in Architecture and Film in 2013. Jiaan took a summer semester to work and study in Connecticut in 2012. Jiaan is currently in a landscape architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis. She will receive her M.L.A. degree in 2016 May. Jiaan dedicates to show her value that she could bring as an employee to the company she is working for.

A local resident of Oahu, Justin Wong is a 4th year Architecture student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At the urban scale, public interest, environmental, and sustainable design are fields of interest that he would like to explore and understand. Justins career goal is to eventually develop urban scale projects that improve the quality of life in Oahu, but is still affordable, efficient and available for everyone to enjoy. 

My name is Kelli Kimura and I am from Aiea, Hawai'i. I am a third year architecture student at the University of Oregon pursuing a five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree. Something I am interested in is the idea of creating sustainable communities that both support the needs of users and also incorporate strategies that minimize a building’s impact on the environment. One day I hope to become an architect and apply these kinds of strategies/ideas in future design work.

Aydee Zielke recently earned her Master’s of Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Prior to grad school she earned a BS in Environmental Science and held several environmental planning/scientist professional positions. Aydee has been lucky to call Honolulu her home for the last 6 years, and she is originally from California. Her career goals include working with a consulting firm or agency that aligns with her sustainable development and conversation planning values

My name is Lulu Feng. I came from Hainan, an island located in southern China. I recently graduated from DURP with Master Degree in Urban & Regional Planning. I attended college at Beijing Forestry University with Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture. I also worked as an Assistant landscape designer in Hangzhou, China. I enjoy utilize tools to analyze and visualize solutions to planning problems. I am interested in physical planning and would like to do this here in Hawaii.

Natalie Hanson, MURP student at the University of Hawaii, developed a strong interest in green infrastructure and community building while working in green building certifications and building design projects in Shanghai.  An undergraduate degree in Asian Studies and six years in China fostered a deep sense of love and respect for Chinese cultural heritage, and its history of immigration and influence in the US.  Natalie hails from South Dakota, and earned her undergraduate degree at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. 

Omar Mirza graduated from Honolulu Community College. I received an Associates of Science degree in Architecture, Engineering, and Computer Aided Design (A.E.C.) in May 2010 and then transferred to UH Manoa in the fall of 2014. I was accepted to study in the DArch program and currently am a freshman in the college of architecture. I have been professionally working in the field of design since 2008.

 

Raised in Chengdu, China, Yuelin Yu graduated from South China University of Technology, majored in landscape architecture. After a one year internship, she started her master of architecture degree in Washington university of St. Louis in Missouri. She worked as an intern in various architecture offices such as Axi:ome in St. Louis. She plans to join an architecture firm after she graduates from Washington University in St. Louis.

Teresa Gabaylo is a fourth year student attending University of Hawaii at Manoa for Environmental Design in the school of Architecture. It is her ambition to become a landscape designer for the State of Hawaii. Growing up in Ewa Beach, she grew up with the values and cultural awareness necessary to understand Hawaii’s diverse population. During her years as a tutor teaching AutoCAD and Revit in a public high school, she implemented her learning and studies in the architect school to teach students how to design with versatility. Through this internship she would like to gain insight on how an architecture career is like in the real world.