Prince Kuhio Federal Building, Federal building and courthouse in Honolulu, United States
The Prince Kuhio Federal Building contains a ten-story office tower connected to a six-story courthouse through an enclosed pedestrian bridge.
The 1977 structure stands on the former site of Fort Armstrong, replacing an earlier federal complex that served customs and postal operations near Iolani Palace.
The building bears the name of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, who represented Hawaii as a territorial delegate to Congress from 1903 to 1922.
The federal building houses 57 government agencies, including the United States District Court for Hawaii and the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit Honolulu Division.
A 2015 renovation added a nine-story atrium with natural light penetration and implemented systems that reduced energy consumption by thirty percent.
Location: Honolulu
Inception: 1977
Architectural style: brutalism
GPS coordinates: 21.30361,-157.86222
Latest update: March 5, 2025 08:54
Brutalist architecture emerged in the decades following World War II, producing buildings that challenged conventional design through their honest expression of materials and function. From Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation in Marseille to Louis Kahn's National Assembly in Dhaka, these structures define a global movement that prioritized raw concrete, bold geometric forms and exposed construction elements. The style reached across continents, shaping university libraries in Chicago, government buildings in Boston and Chandigarh, residential towers in London, and cultural centers in São Paulo. Each building reflects the architectural philosophy of its time, when architects sought to create functional spaces through direct expression of structure and material. This collection documents examples from Europe, Asia, North and South America, representing the full range of building types that defined the movement. You'll find administrative complexes that house parliaments and municipal offices, educational facilities serving major universities, residential towers providing urban housing, and cultural institutions including museums and theaters. The structures share common characteristics—concrete left exposed to show its texture and formwork patterns, geometric compositions that emphasize mass and volume, and architectural elements that reveal rather than conceal how buildings stand and function. These sites offer insight into a period when architects reimagined how modern cities could be built and how public spaces could serve their communities.
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