UH ManoaScope:   Hawaii Hall is the University’s first significant building, built in 1912.  It is in the Register of Historic Places and is designated a Historic Building. It is a three-story structure with the first level one-half story below grade.  The perimeter walls are reinforced concrete and the interior framing is wood construction.  A comprehensive evaluation for the renovation of the building was undertaken which included a structural integrity evaluation and testing and development of schemes for renovation of the deteriorated building.  Testing was used to determine the material properties of the building elements that could not be replaced.  All schemes for strengthening and repair of the deteriorated elements were developed with the intent of preserving the existing building elements and their appearance.

A new lateral load resisting structural system was required due to the heavier floors and needed to be updated to meet current Building Codes.  An original or innovative approach was taken where three different lateral systems were molded.  One model included just the existing exterior building walls, another with just the proposed new concrete shear walls, and the last was using both the existing and new shear walls.  The existing perimeter walls were found to be extremely rigid or stiff relative to the new shear walls placed within the footprint that would absorb all new wind and earthquake forces.  In all the models the existing walls were found to have adequate shear capacity to support the new loads however it could not be relied upon since it did not meet the specific detailing requirements for ductility in the Uniform Building Code.  Retrofitting of the existing exterior walls conventionally or with carbon fiber would be extremely expensive, so it was decided to design the new concrete walls to take the entire lateral loads thus meeting the Uniform Building Code requirement.