Project: Site Design Studio—Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
Student: Delphine Homerowski, MLA Candidate
Course: Spring 2021 ARCH 652 Site Design Studio
Instructor: Simon Bussiere, ASLA

Delphine Homerowski’s proposed design is inspired by a conversation in which the Bishop Museum leadership expressed their desire to create a site that would put an emphasis on community, outdoor use, and enhancing native stories. The project focuses on the great lawn—the primary gathering center on the campus—incorporating five main design principles: extension, pause, socializing, ecology and light.

Four large terraces span across the great lawn, paired with a culturally sensitive plant palette to support educational and cultural events at the museum, and to provide additional shade. Two swales, integrated on either side of the lawn, direct excess rainwater into a loʻi patch at the site’s low point. A gentle slope on the left of the lawn guides visitors.

Overall, the proposed design aims to create opportune conditions for gathering and for the museum experience to be brought to the outdoors, in a culturally relevant vegetated landscape that accounts for the existing hydrology of the site, while allowing for flexibility and functionality.