Iolani Palace Repairs and Restoration

Client: Friends of Iolani Palace

Architect: MASON

Completion Year: 2020

Size: N/A

Construction Cost: $245,500

Iolani Palace is a historic Hawaii landmark located in Downtown Honolulu at the corner of King St. and Richard St. In July, the Friends of Iolani Palace contracted the help of Contractors Hawaii (CHI) with funding support from the Hawaii Tourism Association (HTA) to fix its deteriorating Coronation Pavilion and remove dangerous feral bees infesting the palace.

Over the years, thousands of bees have entered through crevasses in the upper outer walls of the palace and made their homes in as many as five hives. The extraction and relocation of the bees were done by Beelieve Hawaii.

Once the bees were removed, CHI made historically accurate repairs to seal up the palace walls that were cut during the bee removal.

In addition to the palace exterior wall repairs, CHI worked on restoring the deteriorating Coronation Pavilion on the palace grounds, which has been dangerously unusable for years. This is the first major restoration work on the pavilion in 35 years. Improvements to the Coronation Pavilion include a fresh coat of paint, spall repairs on the basement ceiling and on the columns, replacement of the wood beam between the columns for additional support, repairs to the balusters and railings for a clean and refreshed look, and the basement lighting was replaced with an energy efficient fixture to brighten up the space. 

CHI has been entrusted to complete many cultural/historical projects for the State of Hawaii, like Iolani Palace. Previous significant restoration projects include preservation and repairs to Ali'iolani Hale, Bishop Museum, Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Doris Duke’s Shangri La, Hilo Federal Building, and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.