Here’s a recommendation.

It’s worth your while to visit a small exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art, located in a gallery just to the left of the main entrance.

Breeze block. It was all around when I was growing up. Still very visible today. You’ll know it when you see it, like in this portion of a photo in the current exhibition.

These photos of buildings across the state will likely leave you with with a new appreciation of this basic element of many homes, as well as public buildings, dating to the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

And while you’re there, you can check out the other fine galleries featuring art from a variety of time periods and locations. The museum is an under-appreciated gem!

Let Trade Winds Flow
November 7, 2025–March 8, 2026
Gallery 14

Let Trade Winds Flow is a visual exploration of the breeze block, the affordable and engaging architectural element that can be seen throughout Hawai‘i, keeping us cool and adding midcentury-modern character to our built environment.

Used in residential and commercial buildings starting in the post-World War II construction boom, breeze block originated in the Sunbelt regions of North America and by 1955 were being used in Hawai‘i. In the 1960s and 1970s, Hawai‘i was home to at least four breeze block manufacturers—a testament to the building material?s popularity. Today there is one.

Inspired by the work of the nonprofit Docomomo US/Hawaii Chapter, which is dedicated to the conservation of modern architecture, and its 2023 publication Screen Blocks in Hawaii: Letting Trade Winds Flow, HoMA curator Tory Laitila invited six photographers from across Hawai?i—Andy Behrle, James Charisma, David Franzen, Michelle Mishina, James Nakamura, and Kahale Naehu-Ramos—to share their images of breeze block on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Kaua‘i, Maui, and Moloka‘i. They reveal an architectural identity and may inspire us to see more whimsical patterns embedded in the world around us, appreciating these functional building blocks with spaces that allow the trade winds to flow.