by Dwight Mitsunaga
Please join us at our annual 2016 Academy of Architecture for Justice National Conference in Hawaii. We’ll all be meeting at the Modern Honolulu Hotel in Waikiki on November 2-5. This year’s theme, Aloha! Sharing Justice Architecture Best Practices, focuses on bringing out successful ideas and approaches to designing, constructing and managing efficient, economical, safe and desirable courts, detention/corrections and law enforcement facilities.
Our opening plenary will be a welcome, and a meet and greet with Hawaii’s justice leaders; Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honorable Shan Tsutsui; Hawaii’s Chief Justice, the Honorable Mark Recktenwald; Hawaii’s Deputy Director of Corrections, Ms. Jodie Maesaka-Hirata; and Hawaii’s presidential-appointed U.S. Marshal, Mr. Gervin Miyamoto. Dr. Daniel Friedman, FAIA, Dean of the University of Hawaii’s School of Architecture, will also present his perspectives and discoveries as a relative newcomer to Hawaii.
Plenary sessions will include a luncheon celebrating our annual Justice Facilities Review awards; and a powerful presentation by New Zealand judges, the Honorable Collin Doherty and the Honorable Chief Justice Jan Doogue on their unbelievable challenges in Rebuilding Justice after the horrific Christchurch Earthquakes. Alternative Futures of Justice and Architectural Design will be presented by Hawaii’s internationally celebrated futurist, Dr. Jim Dator, at this year’s closing plenary.
You’ll have tours of 3 iconic buildings: Hawaii’s State Capitol, a symbolically designed sculpture completed in 1968; Honolulu’s historic City Hall, Honolulu Hale, constructed in 1928; and the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole or PJKK Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse constructed in 1977 and recently modernized through the combined efforts of Gensler of San Francisco, Ricci Greene of New York and Clifford Planning of Honolulu.
We are pleased to announce the launching of the AAJ’s University Outreach Program. The University Outreach Committee has been working diligently to initiate a presentation on justice architecture for the students and faculty at the University of Hawaii’s School of Architecture. This year’s Saturday sustainable justice workshop will be conducted at the City & County of Honolulu’s McCoy Pavilion; providing attendees with a leisurely walk through the nearby Ala Moana Beach Park.
Sharing and working together are a part of what we all need to do each and every day to create the best projects possible as responsible professionals. Our annual conferences provide a great opportunity to address the needs of our justice communities, and join together to share knowledge so that we can keep improving and advancing justice architecture. Together, we can do wonders.
Please visit the conference homepage for more information on this wonderful opportunity to join your colleagues in Hawaii.
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our wonderful team. Conference co-chair Mr. Curt Parde, AIA of HOK Dallas and track chairs Ms. Sharon Schmitz, AIA of Treanor Architects St. Louis (courts), Ms. Tamara Clarke, AIA of HOK San Francisco (corrections), Mr. Mike Smith, AIA of Nacht & Lewis Sacramento (law enforcement), Ms. Tonia Moy, AIA of Fung Associates Honolulu (tour chair), Ms. Erica Loynd, AIA of DLR Group Seattle (sustainable justice chair), Ms. Amy Finlayson, AIA of the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management (leadership conference liason), and Ms. April Portoff, FAIA of CGL Ricci Greene Associates Lexington, Kentucky (university outreach chair).
Special thanks go out to Mr. Lorenzo Lopez, AIA, of Nacht & Lewis Sacramento, last year’s chair of the AAJ’s Leadership Group, for considering Hawaii as a viable conference destination; and AIA National’s Ms. Kathleen Simpson, Ms. Lori Feinman and Ms. Emma Tucker for making this year’s conference possible. And a very special mahalo (thank you) goes out to all of our loyal exhibitors for their unwavering support of our conferences.
So please mark your calendars and treat yourselves to a wonderful experience. I’ll look forward to seeing you all here in November.
Aloha and Best Regards,
Dwight Mitsunaga, AIA
Pacific Architects Honolulu
2016 AAJ Conference Chair
(Return to the cover of the 2016 AAJ Journal Q3 issue)