Alfred Preis

Hart Wood - Keehi Lagoon Airport Project (1943)

The Keehi Lagoon airport project for Hart Wood in 1943 was Preis’s first large project after leaving the firm Clarke-Kahala, which had served as his sponsor after his internment. Hart Wood was at the time a young and ambitious architect looking for creative people while simultaneously attempting to maintain business during the war. Alfred Preis joined his office for the Keehi Lagoon Airport Project, a progressive commercial airport design for amphibious and regular airplanes. The project was developed over a four-month period and Preis, despite his youth and inexperience was given lead on the project. He reached out and invited a former Pan American Airlines employee and now a consultant to assist in the airport design since knowledge and standards relevant to airport design were not plentiful. Furthermore, he had never designed a building of that size and scope.

The project happened just at the emergence of leisure and business travel by air, a branch of transportation design that was in its infancy. Ironically, the actual building of the project was never intended; rather, it was a project to facilitate the US Navy’s lease of land from the then-territory of Hawai’i. The leasehold came with stipulations to provide all utilities for a future airport that in turn the territory could erect after the departure of the US Navy. For this goal to be achieved, the project had to move forward with all seriousness. Preis was sent to present the project in front of committees and community groups. This responsibility was a first for him, but that experience in community interaction became a steppingstone for his future career.