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WHITMORE COMMUNITY FOOD HUB COMPLEX: BUILDING COMMUNITY AROUND FOOD | Wahiawa, Hawaii | 2017

WHITMORE COMMUNITY FOOD HUB COMPLEX: BUILDING COMMUNITY AROUND FOOD | Wahiawa, Hawaii | 2017

Architects: University of Arkansas Community Development
Client: Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Livestock Support Services


More than 93 percent of Hawai‛i’s food is imported. Alarming, since Hawai‛i is the remotest inhabited land mass on Earth; astonishing, since Hawai‛i is the only state in the USA covering all seven of Earth’s terrestrial biomes—coastal strand, dry woodlands, tropical rainforest, mesic forests, deserts, subalpine grassland/shrubland, and alpine desert. Hawai‛i’s landscape once fed a nation. Hawaiian grocers have a five‐day supply of food sourced from global supply chains, meaning they are fifteen meals away from anarchy. The proposal recalls the need to “think like an island” in building statewide resilience. Community‐based food hubs are emerging nationwide as anchors in aggregating, processing, and distributing product from local growers to wholesale consumers. Not a typical farmer’s market, food hubs incubate socio‐economic resilience through creation of value‐added food supply chains and a skilled workforce where neither existed. The 400,000 sf Whitmore Food Hub will serve O‛ahu farmers and communities while advancing “missing middle” agricultural infrastructure for community‐based food production among Hawai‛i’s other islands. Hawai`i needs a facility that meets the stringent requirements of the soon‐to‐be‐enacted US Food Safety Modernization Act. The facility’s investment‐grade construction is smooth with minimal articulation that prevents water and pest intrusions, and resists corrosion and extreme weather. The hub’s tilt wall concrete construction system—an in situ process—provides flexibility, affordability, and minimal joinery for high performance protection of food products. Besides providing processing and distribution support for an underserved agricultural community, the Whitmore complex serves additional community needs in agricultural workforce housing, retail, local business incubation, and cultural tourism. The challenge is to provide a great public place for Wahiawa residents and North Shore tourists alike despite that 80 percent of the complex is devoted to logistical functions. While tilt wall concrete construction provides a clean environment minimizing the chance for contamination, its construction lacks an architectural pedigree with aesthetic or urban value. To address this challenge we have shaped multiple civic building frontages as a shade economy to establish a welcoming, porous sense of place. Influences include traditional Hawaiian pavilion‐and‐court design, vernacular agriculture building types, and signature street environments, as they all produce highquality urban places of dignity and generosity. In roofs, bridges, and public canopies, the architectural approach creates an iconic skyline from pragmatic building solutions. Urban design adopts a campus planning approach animated by public landscapes including the upgrade of Whitmore Avenue from a highway to a mixed‐use multi‐way “shared street” that compels the motorist to behave socially. Bisecting Main Street, a bold half‐mile public concourse connects the shared street to downtown Wahiawa across the canyon through a commons with agricultural workforce microhousing (100 units at 250‐300 sq ft), commercial food tenants, a demonstration food forest, and a bridge anchored by a botanical pavilion and a zip line. The proposal builds community around food while incenting local grower start‐ups with processing and logistical support for reclaiming indigenous food traditions.


WHITEMORE COMMUNITY FOOD HUB
WHITEMORE COMMUNITY FOOD HUB
WHITEMORE COMMUNITY FOOD HUB

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