A post here on Sunday asked for help in identifying this high-rise building under construction back somewhere in the 1970s (“A 1970s condo under construction“). You an click on the photo to view a larger version.
I’ve been making some progress today, but haven’t gotten to a clear answer that accounts for everything in the photo.
One problem is that the photo was taken with a telephoto lens of undetermined length, which compresses distances and distorts relative locations.
I did make a small step forward.
• The low-rise building behind the construction site is quite distinctive. It appears to be the apartment building at 2873 S King St. There is a smaller building that fronts King Street, and 2873 is right behind it, just off of church lane.
Here is how it looks today in a photo lifted from a real estate ad, with the Contessa right behind it.
Screenshot
At first, I thought the high rise under construction had to be the Contessa, which is right next door to 2873 S. King.
I still think this is most likely.
However, I can’t figure out a vantage point from which the photo could have been taken, and from which the Contessa lines up with 2873 S. King in the same manner, and the street in front–whether a section of King Street, Kapiolani Blvd, or Kapahulu Ave–appears as it does in the original photo. It seems to me all those pieces have to fall into place before we have the answer.
Then I found myself considering whether it night be the Regency Tower, as suggested in a comment by Clyde Kobatake.
But if that’s the Regency, then where is the Contessa (built in 1971)? It should be visible elsewhere in the photo. Where is it?
I’m thinking the photo might have been taken from a spot along the west-bound Kapiolani off-ramp from H-1, which could approximate the perspective.
Other info. Before I hit a daily limit, I asked ChatGPT to identify buildings seen in the original photo. It made several obviously incorrect identifications, but after a back-and-forth with me, it offered this annotated version.
I don’t have much confidence in it, but still this might be useful.
Screenshot
I’m hoping all you amateur sleuths are going to contribute to finding the answer!
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I think it’s the regency tower. We lived in the Iolani Court plaza when it was new
Hi Ian, I think the consensus the last time this was discussed is that it’s the contessa taken from hale manoa.
https://www.ilind.net/2016/08/25/throwback-thursday-construction-c-1970/
I don’t think the low rise building is 2873 S. King. The old picture, there are 3 windows, then a space, then 3 windows, etc, and no doors are visible. The center column has windows as well. Whereas the current pic of 2873 (as well as on google maps), it’s two windows then a much bigger gap which includes a door and the center column is solid.
The ChatGPT generated annotation could not be wronger lol. Obviously not the Marco Polo, and that can’t be the Ala Moana Hotel, because the AMH is still one of the tallest buildings in Honolulu, and at that time, may have been the tallest. I toyed with the idea that the building to the right of what ChatGPT identifies as the AMH is actually the hotel because of its height, but that doesn’t fit either, because there really aren’t many buildings Ewa of the AMH.
Still I would think it’s the Regency. BUT no forget, the Contessa has a reputation which may make pictures of it misleading.
Too much time on my hands on a Monday night.
The low rise building is Johnson Hall (https://share.google/dD68khEZiDFI1YRnC)
I remember the Contessa being built while attending Kuhio School. The pic reminded of the construction of the condominium.
It’s Contessa.
That building in the foreground looks like Johnson Hall on Dole Street. East-West Road at the lower left.
Photo might have been taken from Hale Manoa.
Johnson Hall as of Nov 2024 per Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/@21.2964839,-157.816466,3a,75y,172.46h,105.68t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sMfpOPK8vDHTnjRvP-oyFhw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-15.680189270150336%26panoid%3DMfpOPK8vDHTnjRvP-oyFhw%26yaw%3D172.463019957309!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDIxOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
That building in the photo has such a retro vibe. Have you had any luck finding its location?
The spherical streetlight diffusers to me scream University of Hawaii…as a kid who ventured through every possible space there, often from my vantage point of a banana-seated lime green coaster-brake-equipped bike, those were The Future, and from my then-admittedly-limited perspective, unique to UH Manoa.
Then there’s the barely-visible “TUNE IN/ TURN ON/ DROP OUT” graffiti on the construction fence – another “students-live-here” indicator.
Then, there’s the subtle curve in the road…and I’m gonna say this is a long lens view from about Hale Manoa, along East-West Road, near Dole St., shot over Johnson Hall ‘B’ building. That’s the Contessa seeming to loom larger than it ever would to our 50mm eyes – and the construction site nearest the camera would be Holmes Hall, the engineering building, where I’d spend many not-particularly-enjoyable days a couple of decades later.
Ian, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that building was never actually there. A lot of people remember it, but it was part of a short lived 1970s federal and UH urban planning experiment called Project Perspective. They built a temporary high rise facade to study traffic behavior, took a bunch of photos, and then quietly removed it before anyone noticed. Mufi was a grad student on the UH side of the collaboration at the time.
That’s why no vantage point lines up correctly. The building only existed when viewed through certain telephoto lenses.
Actually, a later post included the identity of the building and where the photo was taken from. And when those pieces fell into place, the line of sight did line up correctly, as did the time line of both construction sites.
I’m so sorry. I’ve been kind of preoccupied and missed your joke when I read it the first time! Thank you.
No worries! Thanks for acknowledging though! :-).