A Biography of Alfred Preis (1911-1993): Immigrant, Architect, and Designer of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

FAIN: FEL-262343-19

Laura Margaret McGuire
University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI 96822-2216)

Research and writing leading to publication of a critical biography of architect Alfred Preiss (1911-1993), an Austrian émigré who settled in Hawaii, and his impact on American architectural design.

This project will be the first study of Alfred Preis, an immigrant Austrian architect who fled Hitler for Hawaii in 1939. It will consist of a critical biography and a catalog of works. By examining the roles that Preis' immigrant status and his Vienna experience played in his professional success and in his vision for regional Hawaiian modernism, it will enrich our understanding of Hawaiian design from 1939-1965. Although Preis drew on spatial, formal, and ornamental idioms derived from Viennese modernism, I will show how he adapted them to the tropical climate and to Hawaiian multiculturalism. His status as a new immigrant may have played a role in his ability to gain quick acceptance in the close-knit and ethnically diverse architectural community of Honolulu. Preis was able to leverage his European background in the remote archipelago, which was consolidating its own polyglot architectural identity at midcentury as it transitioned politically from a U.S. territory into a state.

Associated Products

“Making Modernism Hawaiian: Rebuilding Laupahoehoe School After a Tidal Wave” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Making Modernism Hawaiian: Rebuilding Laupahoehoe School After a Tidal Wave”
Author: Laura McGuire
Abstract: This paper examines the historical significance of the rebuilding of Laupahoehoe School, a Hawai‘i public school on the eastern coastline of Hawai‘i Island. The original school, along with major roads and infrastructure, was destroyed when an enormous tidal wave hit the island in April 1946. The destruction of the school came at a time (just after World War II) when Hawai‘i’s population was growing rapidly, and older buildings were stretched to capacity with wartime children. Alfred Preis, a Jewish refugee architect from Nazi-occupied Vienna was selected to develop the Laupahoehoe design. Until 1946, Pries’s work in Hawai‘i had remained closely wedded to the Austrian modernist form languages he had learned while studying in Vienna; he hadn’t quite absorbed the ways in which design in the tropics could, or should, be different from architecture in temperate Europe. At Laupahoehoe, however, the post-disaster situation – which included impassable roads and serious difficulties importing building materials – forced Preis to improvise and to develop his skills as a tropical, regionalist architect. Preis used locally sourced materials, such as lava rock and ohia trees – a highly significant plant in indigenous tradition – and developed a passive climate control system derived from local wind patterns. He married these materials and techniques to his own Viennese traditions about ornament, and functional and spatial planning, creating a singularly regionalist building. At Laupahoehoe School, Preis thus put forward a new vision of tropical architecture for the islands – one that made modernism Hawaiian.
Date: 12/08/19
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z5m5iblm_mrnnwmuDBOfG9j81dEmwZCv/view?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: “Making Modernism Hawaiian: Rebuilding Laupahoehoe School After a Tidal Wave” Conference paper presentation by Laura McGuire
Conference Name: Meeting of the International Network for Tropical Architecture, Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 5-8, 2019

Alfred Preis and Rebuilding Laupahoēhoē School After a Tidal Wave: Making Modernism “Hawaiian” (Article)
Title: Alfred Preis and Rebuilding Laupahoēhoē School After a Tidal Wave: Making Modernism “Hawaiian”
Author: Laura McGuire
Abstract: This forthcoming paper examines the historical significance of the rebuilding of Laupahoehoe School, a Hawai‘i public school on the eastern coastline of Hawai‘i Island. The original school, along with major roads and infrastructure, was destroyed when an enormous tidal wave hit the island in April 1946. The destruction of the school came at a time (just after World War II) when Hawai‘i’s population was growing rapidly, and older buildings were stretched to capacity with wartime children. Alfred Preis, a Jewish refugee architect from Nazi-occupied Vienna was selected to develop the Laupahoehoe design. Until 1946, Pries’s work in Hawai‘i had remained closely wedded to the Austrian modernist form languages he had learned while studying in Vienna; he hadn’t quite absorbed the ways in which design in the tropics could, or should, be different from architecture in temperate Europe. At Laupahoehoe, however, the post-disaster situation – which included impassable roads and serious difficulties importing building materials – forced Preis to improvise and to develop his skills as a tropical, regionalist architect. Preis used locally sourced materials, such as lava rock and ohia trees – a highly significant plant in indigenous tradition – and developed a passive climate control system derived from local wind patterns. He married these materials and techniques to his own Viennese traditions about ornament, and functional and spatial planning, creating a singularly regionalist building. At Laupahoehoe School, Preis thus put forward a new vision of tropical architecture for the islands – one that made modernism Hawaiian.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aVPBcYLySxMk1KDYbEG6ahhgHXKqFC3a/view?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: "Alfred Preis and Rebuilding Laupahoēhoē School After a Tidal Wave: Making Modernism 'Hawaiian'" By Laura McGuire This is the final draft of my article accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 2019 Meeting of the International Network for Tropical Architecture. It will be published in Summer 2020.
Access Model: The proceedings will be open access when published
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Proceedings of the 2019 Meeting of the International Network for Tropical Architecture
Publisher: Proceedings of the 2019 International Meeting of the Network for Tropical Architecture

Alfred Preis: Roofing as Motif in Hawaiian Architecture (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Alfred Preis: Roofing as Motif in Hawaiian Architecture
Writer: Laura McGuire
Director: Laura McGuire
Director: Timothy Schuler
Producer: ThinkTech Hawaii
Abstract: Regional Hawaiian Modernism In this episode of Human(e) Architecture, we will be discussing the concept of the roof in Alfred Preis’ mid century architecture and the historical context for his designs, which are based in the Hawaiian hale and Chinese roofs. The host for this episode is Laura McGuire. The guest for this episode is Timothy Schuler.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://thinktechhawaii.com/alfred-preis-roofing-as-motif-in-hawaiian-architecture-humane-architecture/
Primary URL Description: Regional Hawaiian Modernism In this episode of Human(e) Architecture, we will be discussing the concept of the roof in Alfred Preis’ mid century architecture and the historical context for his designs, which are based in the Hawaiian hale and Chinese roofs. The host for this episode is Laura McGuire. The guest for this episode is Timothy Schuler.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Web

Alfred Preis and the Veteran's Village in Palolo Valley (Docomomo Hawaii) (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Alfred Preis and the Veteran's Village in Palolo Valley (Docomomo Hawaii)
Writer: Laura McGuire
Director: Laura McGuire
Producer: ThinkTech Hawaii
Abstract: This episode of Humane Architecture discusses the Veterans Village housing development designed from 1947-1951 by Alfred Preis and the lessons that cooperative housing projects may have for our current Hawaii housing crisis today.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOwB3HBXuU8
Primary URL Description: This episode of Humane Architecture discusses the Veterans Village housing development designed from 1947-1951 by Alfred Preis and the lessons that cooperative housing projects may have for our current Hawaii housing crisis today.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Web

Alfred Preis and Viennese Modernism in Hawai'i (Article)
Title: Alfred Preis and Viennese Modernism in Hawai'i
Author: Laura McGuire
Abstract: Alfred Preis (1911-1993), who was a Viennese émigré and refugee architect with no early experience designing for tropical climates, went on to become one of the most prolific midcentury regionalist and modernist Hawai‘i designers. Although he is best known for his award-winning design for the USS Arizona Memorial (1962) – one of the ships infamously sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Pries’s earlier institutional and residential commissions are arguably his most compelling. His Viennese roots directly influenced Pries’s approach to design in Hawai‘i. By engaging numerous precedents from Vienna, he eventually forged a novel idiom for Hawai‘i domestic design. This article will examine the interiors of two of Preis’s more than 100 single-family houses – the Scudder Residence (now the Scudder-Gillmar Residence) (1939-1940) and the Dr. Edward and Elsie Lau Residence (1951) – in order to highlight some of the ways in which Preis transported Viennese modern design ideas of the first three decades of the 20th century some 7,616 miles from Austria into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His interior designs for these houses evidence strong relationships with the ideas of earlier Viennese modernists about spatial planning, the aesthetic uses of materials, furnishings, and color. Perhaps more than any other influence, Preis’s Vienna experience culminated in modern architecture that was as sensorially pleasurable as Hawai‘i itself.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.docomomo.com/2020/07/30/tropical-architecture-in-the-modern-diaspora/
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Docomomo Journal
Publisher: Docomomo International

The Midcentury Architecture of Alfred Preis (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Midcentury Architecture of Alfred Preis
Abstract: A discussion of the midcentury modern architecture of Alfred Preis in Hawai'i and its relationship to Viennese modern architecture from 1910-1930.
Author: Laura McGuire
Date: 10/16/2020
Location: University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Biographical Research
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyQ1UwVhIz0
Primary URL Description: YouTube video of the public lecture.

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