Iolani School’s new 57,000-SF student center is a dynamic campus hub featuring a two-story dining hall, wellness center, classrooms, rooftop event spaces, and a tea house for mindfulness—all designed to inspire community, learning, and sustainability.
The three-story structure consists of a reinforced concrete frame with post-tensioned concrete slabs supported on piles, and the roof is framed in structural steel. Two unique, curved HSS round columns help provide gravity support for the roof structure at the corners. The design architect specifically requested the curved shapes to mimic the look of palm trees swaying in the wind.
This project is located within the tsunami inundation zone on Oahu. Because it was designated as a Risk Category III structure, tsunami resistant design provisions were incorporated to protect against tsunami load effects. The concrete lateral wall system was detailed to meet high seismic performance standards, including the use of closely spaced confinement reinforcement. Interior two-story concrete columns were also enlarged beyond conventional requirements to accommodate potential impact forces from tsunami driven debris. Finally, the exterior straight HSS columns supporting the roof were braced at the third floor and filled with cementitious grout to increase stiffness and improve their ability to resist tsunami loads.
In addition to the primary structure, BASE also assisted in the design of the facility’s chiller plant and school’s baseball backstop.