Kamehameha plans $118 million makeover at Kapalama

The nonprofit Kamehameha Schools announced plans on May 24 for a $118.5 million redevelopment project on its main Kapalama campus, which serves 3,200 students. The three-year construction project will be the largest in the history of the Kalihi campus and may generate up to 500 construction jobs, according to Kamehameha Schools officials.

The plan includes revamping the middle school campus, dormitories and physical education/athletic complex and building a long-envisioned Hawaiian cultural center and 500-stall parking structure. The middle school, which has 640 seventh- and eighth-grade students, will be almost entirely demolished beginning in June, with the exception of the gym and locker room. Five buildings to be completed by the end of 2012 totaling some 160,000 square feet will replace it.

A new 30,000-square-foot athletics complex will be built, including men's and women's locker rooms, a weight and fitness room, as well as classrooms and a training room. The Kaiwakiloumoku Hawaiian cultural center, measuring 22,000 square feet, will also be part of the campus makeover and serve as a symbol of the school's commitment to revitalizing the Hawaiian culture.

Nordic PCL was selected as the general contractor on the project. Architects Hawaii Ltd. will design the parking structure and athletics complex; INK Architects LLC will do the cultural center and Mitsunaga & Associates Inc. the middle school and dormitories.