Mary Philpotts McGrath: Make landscaping part of Hawaii’s sense of place
By Mary Philpotts McGrath, PBN Contributor
Pacific Business News has been the voice of business in Hawaii for 50 years. Business leaders and PBN have co-witnessed the onslaught of changes in lifestyle, density, construction, tourism, traffic and an elevated-rail system.
“A sense of place” is now an overused phrase in environmental discussions, lectures, editorials, and political campaigns as we continually voice concern for our environment.
When I ask myself, “What can we do?” the answer is always: “Increase landscaping!”
Our green landscape is disappearing and there is only minimal restitution. Even the high-rise roof gardens have given way to solar panel installations.
The visual impact of concrete is ever increasing. For instance, how and why have newly constructed and monumental buildings been built without a landscape setback?
Throughout Honolulu there are increasing greenscape voids where concrete monolithic structures and inappropriate signage are offensive to the environment.
It is my hope that Pacific Business News will, for the next 50 years, be a strong and vocal leader in a campaign to maintain our environmental balance.
We can, together, with arboretums and the city and county staff, enhance and balance the construction impact on our landscape and create a memorable greenscape in Honolulu.
If you doubt me, stop and reflect on the gold trees and shower trees in bloom every year and the joy they bring to us.
If you think it’s too late, drive by 1122 Banyan on Palama Street off King Street, and marvel at the apartment building’s living green façade!
Another dynamic example is the planting on 1224 Maunakea St. By raising the planter three to four feet, the landscape has far more impact in screening the building and lessening loitering. The Hawaii Convention Center has also utilized raised planting effectively.
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