Preis Events

 
 
 

Event Information

The Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance’s advocacy effort for 2022 is an exhibition dedicated to the fascinating life story and oeuvre of the US-Austrian architect Alfred Preis (1911-1994). Born, raised, and educated in Vienna, Preis had to flee from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939 and he emigrated to Honolulu. Briefly imprisoned as “enemy alien” after the United States entered World War II, he emerged as one of Hawai‘i’s leading architects in the 1950s and 60s. His celebrated career spanned over twenty-three years and comprised almost 180 built projects ranging from residences, schools, and parks – to the famous U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Merging Vienna’s distinctive modernism with Hawai‘i’s cultures and climate, Preis forged intriguing, novel idioms for modern architecture and design in the tropics.

Preis’s decision to leave architecture behind – at the peak of his career – and to dedicate himself to an advocacy role increasingly removed him from the eyes of architectural critics and historians, but allowed him to finally fulfill his lifelong quest to support and nurture the Arts and preserve the culture and environment of his beloved new home, Hawai‘i. 

It is in this latter period that saw his contributions take the largest effect and reach most Hawaiians. He established the State Foundation for the Culture and the Arts in Hawaiʻi which became responsible for the acquisition of art, the preservation of Hawai‘i’s rich culture and endowment of local artists, and initiated the Art in State Buildings program (1% clause), enacted in January 1968, making Hawai‘i the first state in the United States to do so. After his retirement in 1980, Alfred Preis founded the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Arts in Education (dba Hawai‘i Arts Alliance) to further cement his dedication to the Arts and artists.

Preis’ legacy includes:

  • More than 180 houses for low to moderate-income families and private clients

  • Designed the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor

  • Co-founder of the State Foundation on Culture & the Arts with Rep. Calvin Say

  • Help pass the Works of Art Special Fund in the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes, Chapter 103-8.5.

  • Founded the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Arts Education dba Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance in 1980.