IBM Building, Honolulu

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The IBM Building is a six-story office building at 1240 Ala Moana Boulevard in Honolulu. Designed by Vladimir Ossipoff, it opened in 1962 as IBM’s Honolulu headquarters. Today it’s owned by Howard Hughes Corporation and is used as a sales center for Ward Village.

Construction cost about $1.5 million at the time. The roughly cube-shaped building is famous for its honeycomb-pattern concrete sun screen (brise soleil) on the upper floors, inspired by Polynesian culture and the punched cards used in early computing. The sun screen is made from 1,360 precast concrete pieces and helps shade the interior while keeping views open.

The building has about 61,961 square feet of space and sits back from the street with berms to minimize its visual impact. The central core design keeps most of the wall space free for offices.

It was dedicated on October 10, 1962, in a ceremony that included Hawaii’s Governor William F. Quinn. Initially, some residents criticized its austere look, but the building later earned praise and several awards, including a 1964 honorable mention from the Hawaii chapter of the American Institute of Architects and a 1964 Beautification Award from the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.

In 2002, General Growth Properties bought the Ward properties, including the IBM Building. In 2008 GGP proposed demolishing the building as part of a redevelopment plan, but public opposition helped preserve it. Howard Hughes Corporation bought the redevelopment area in 2010 and later planned to keep the IBM Building’s appearance and name.

The building was renovated and reopened in 2014 as a sales center for Ward Village. The project cost about $24 million, with design by Woods Bagot and Ferraro Choi and construction by Jay Kadowaki Inc. and Albert C. Kobayashi Inc. The ground floor was redesigned into an information center with windows on all sides, and a mural by Solomon Enos plus an installation depicting the Hawaiian goddess Keaomelemele were added. A courtyard with a water feature, a cube-like addition, and an extended rooftop lanai were built.

Some critics felt the renovations didn’t fully respect Ossipoff’s original design. In 2018, Howard Hughes announced plans to move remote workers into the building, and IBM began vacating the fourth floor. IBM left the building entirely in 2019, and the roof sign reading “IBM” was removed.

The IBM Building is considered an important example of tropical modernism, blending Polynesian-inspired design with mid-century office architecture.