Hawaii Fact 32 of 50: Hawaii’s State Capitol Building

Hawaii’s State Capitol building is located in downtown Honolulu at 415 South Beretania Street. You may notice from the photo on the left (credit to Cliff1066), that this capitol building doesn’t look like any capitol building from the US mainland. To me, I think the building definitely fits with Hawaii’s architecture and has a modern island-look. Perhaps it looks more modern because it was built in the late 1960’s.

I learned some very interesting facts about the design and symbolism of Hawaii’s State Capitol when I took a tour of historic Honolulu by segway and I’m happy to share them with you here.

• The capitol building is surrounded by a reflecting pool which corresponds to Hawaii being surrounded by the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
• The columns are shaped like palm trees. The columns are wide at the base like palm trees then they become thinner in the middle. At the top, they fan out onto the ceiling. (See this photo on the right for a nice view of the columns.)
• The interior of the building slants upward representing a volcano shape and Hawaii’s formation. (See this photo
  for a view of the top portion of this volcano-like shaped building.)
• Eight is a repeated number in the architecture representing Hawaii’s eight major islands.

For a few more details, photos and information of touring Hawaii’s State Capitol see this link.