MustSee Travelogue
Art in Engineering: The Painted Buildings of Hilo
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Beginning twenty years ago, after high winds cracked or destroyed many of the windows of Downtown Hilo, Mahelona Glass introduced their new architectural glass. Better able to withstand the winds and featuring colors, shapes and textures never before considered. The first building to receive the new glass was Crystal Tower, the high rise home of Mahelona Glass. Each side of the hexagonal building is a distinct work of art beginning with the stained glass wall titled 'Flowers', to the textured brush painting titled 'Waves', to the abstract colors, textures and shapes of the wall titled 'Fractal', to the photo realistic image of Angel Falls, to the kanji calligraphy of the quote "As if you were on fire from within, the moon lives within the lining of your skin", and ending with a tile mosaic of the starscape over Hilo titled 'Stars".
Soon many buildings joined a growing and competitive trend. And everything from single panel logo representations to images of company founders graced walls. They were soon joined by walls of company mascots, famous paintings, inspiring speeches and sports highlights.
Notable buildings include the Spark Telecomm building with their logon on the front of the building and individual panels of emoji over the rest. Sugai Tower, a round high rise that features an oil painting of a night festival with fireworks overhead that wraps around the building.
Hilo General's hospital tower has a faceted red cross on a pearlized white background that can be seen for miles. Tower on the Park is an elliptical tiered building, with each tier being another gradient of color of the visible spectrum.
Rogers & Carson Plaza has a winter theme one wall has faceted individual falling snowflakes, one wall is an photo image of a snow covered tree lined road, one wall is a relief of an ice palace, and the final wall is a water color image of a snow covered hill with sledders and a snowball fight. The Bailey Building commissioned a wall that has a caricature of tourists on an open top bus taking photos of the Painted Buildings.
The latest marvel is at 820 S. Olive, a triangular building with mandala designs that wrap around the building, the designs change color and shape as the temperature changes and at night they add lights and manual temperature control so the building resembles a giant moving kaleidoscope. The most dramatic way to view the Painted Buildings is by helicopter, but open top bus and walking tours are available.
