Zoo's Desire for a New Entrance Leaves Alfred Preis' Designed Entrance in Limbo
Nancy Bannick, Editor
FEBRUARY 2007
Designed at the same time as the Arizona Memorial and sharing similar design elements, Alfred Preis’ distinctive entrance for the Honolulu Zoo is in danger of being side-lined as a new entrance and shop are being planned closer to Kapahulu Avenue. KPPS mobilized to save the Preis entrance, clearly the best designed building in the entire Park, While the City deriled any plans to tear down the building, they were just going to abandon it as an entrance and had no plans to use or restore it - neglect and termites would do the rest.
KPPS, led by Director Nancy Bannick and Preis’ son, architect Jahn-Peter Preis, mounted a vigorous campaign to save the building with the support of Historic Hawaii Foundation, The Outdoor Circle, Scenic Hawaii and the Arizona Memorial Association. We are pleased to report that as a result of our efforts, the Hannernann Administration has committed itself to saving the building but still insists that it cannot be used as an entrance.
Without consulting the State’s Historic Preservation Division or holding any public hearing, the City let a “design build” contract to Okada Trucking Company to design and build a new entrance. The preliminary design shown to KPPS had the proposed new shop extending beyond the zoo fence about 30 feet towardKapahulu with a large shop window facing Kapahulu Avenue to make its blatant commercial presence felt.
The City apparently hoped to obviate the need for of a public hearing required by the State’s Shoreline Management Act (SMA) by keeping the value of the building permit below the $100,000 threshold that requires a hearing - this for a project that will cost one million dollars or more of taxpayers’ money! KPPS challenged this SMA subterfuge, the shop’s proposed expansion into the Park, the shop’s window on the Park, the project’s blatant commercial design and the neglect of the Preis building. KPPS has no objections to a larger shop for the Zoo as long as it is within the Zoo’s current area and does not make its commercial presence felt outside. the
KPPS is pleased with and commends the City for its decision to save the Preis building - all other issues remain up in the air as of this writing. But the question remains: Why build a new entrance when a magnificent one is already there?
-----------------------
Art sales at the Zoo fence — history and present day issues
Should the Trust land be used as a commercial art gallery? Should a private group continuously control the use of this Trust property via a type of license which is essentially permanent?
Contrary to public perception, the zoo fence is not available to all artists who want to come and show their art. Two organizations under one roof control the zoo fence permit from the City and no one can exhibit there without paying dues to them and obeying their rules. Art on the Zoo Fence, Inc. (“AZFI”) and Zoo Fence Artists (“ZFA”) have long had what is essentially a permanent permit from the City. The result is everyone else is excluded from periodic, non-commercial use of the zoo fence, including anyone with a special show, UH artists, visiting art shows.
Excerpted from the State Attorney General’s opinion issued in 2006 is this history of the use of the zoo fence by. artists. In the 1950s a Chaminade art professor and six other artists started the Art Fence, exhibiting on Saturdays. By the I 970s, the fence space was accommodating 70 permanent artists and had a waiting list of 300, so the City opened it to Sundys well.
The actual sale of art there wasn’t expressly permitted until after 1977.
In 1988, the City Council, as Trustees of Kapiolani Park, sent a letter to the Department of Parks & Recreation, objecting to “the sale of zoo fence artwork and any other commercial activity .. . on Kapiolani Park Trust property.” The City then stopped issuing permits.The artists continued to display without permits and believed the problem could be solved by forming AZFI as a 501 (c)(3) exempt organization. All the artists’ groups that had previously exhibited as separate groups in the 60s & 70s then joined under the umbrella organization. The two groups act as one, with the same membership. ZFA’s stated goal is to encourage local artists to display without needing the overhead of a studio. Although it donates leftover money to charity, ZFA is not a tax-exempt organization owing to its commercial activities. It uses about 90% of the dues to pay for commercialxpenses such as liability insurance and advertising. One member of ZFA has exhibited there for over 50 years. Regular members have assigned spaces, based on seniority. The artists have to show ZFA their excise tax licenses. The artists keep the money from their sales and are responsible for tax reporting.
ZFA told the AG that if the sale of art is prohibited, the sale will still occur but at the outskirts of the Park to avoid the rules, making any rule merely an inconvenience to them. They admit that without the ability to sell, the zoo fence exhibit would not exist. The AG points out that this raises the question of what the primary purpose is — the display, or the sales?
The City’s current position is the opposite of its response to the i988 letter from the Trustees: the City now believes that the commercial activity is allowed. KPPS believes that nothing in the Trust or the City’s Park rules allows this permanent exhibit aimed at selling. According to the AG, this activity “as currently practiced use(s) Trust property for personal benefit, which is inconsistent with the very concept of a charitable trust.”
Many people will say that the area used by the zoo fence art show wouldn’t be otherwise used. But the problem is the impact on the Park. ZFA hangs big “ART SALE TODAY” banners all weekend at the Kalakaua entrance to the Park and along the fence, and the ZFA vehicles with commercial signage are parked along Monsarrat as further advertising. Folks running or walking the grassy perimeter of the zoo must cross the street or just walk in the street to continue. The exhibitors take prime Monsarrat non-metered parking stalls on prime park days, Saturday and Sunday. Could heavy use every weekend be a reason that area looks so dusty and useless?
KPPS' position is that this commercialism degrades the nature of the Park and started the trend of regarding the Park as just another venue for whatever a certain group wants to promote or sell. And we wholeheartedly agree with the AG’s opinion that the ZFA’s sole sponsorship “appears to give the events more of a commercial element, and makes it difficult to differentiate the vendors at Kapiolani Park with vendors in the neighboring commercial setting who pay premium rent to do business in the Waikiki area."
KPPS at the Honolulu Marathon Expo
The marathon organizers donated a prime booth space to KPPS, and KPPS board member and arborist Heidi Bornhorst decorated it with Hawaiian plants from her garden. Held from December 6-9, the expo was the largest in Hawaii in 2006. About 80% of the runners were from outside Hawaii, and a number of visitors from the mainland stopped to talk about the Park and voice support for KPPS’s mission.
The third largest marathon in the country, the Honolulu Marathon certainly has an impact on the Park, park users and residents. Nevertheless, the organizers follow procedures that should be required of other events in the Park:
they block off parking less than many events do, a key component to keeping the Park available to the public at
large; they hold sales events such as the expo at more appropriate places such as the Convention Center; they pay for all costs for related traffic and police escorts; they have efficient procedures for controlling litter and rubbish; and they hold a truly international showcase event that sees the Park used and appreciated, not just as a stadium- like swap meet venue but as a park and in a manner that many regular park users can relate to — a pedestrian event. The event is not perfect. KPPS objects to the shoe sales in the park, which are a clear violation of the Park Trust. Also, the marathon discontinued a past practice of donating a portion of proceeds to the upkeep of the Park, and it has a heavy impact on the bandstand area, with its tents going up over a week before the event.
Thanks to KPPS members Carol Hopkins, Mike Beason, Jack Gillmar, Alethea Rebman and Mike Roeder, who wrote the brochures and posters, and to Jack’s tirelessly cheerful recruits from La Pietra, Kapiolani Park books are now in the hands of many more residents and visitors.