Victoria Place reflects a unique blend of local influences with modern design that is thoughtfully integrated with a natural setting of public open space. It takes its inspiration from the rich history of its land and the project’s namesake, Victoria Ward, as well as the mid-century architecture of Honolulu’s most reputable clubs and estate homes. Individually and collectively, the designers involved in the project approached Victoria Place with an emphasis on blending indoors and outdoors for a seamless experience that carries on the local tradition of casual hospitality and living life outdoors. Victoria Place is deeply integrated with its surroundings and conveys a distinct pride of place, offering residents and their guests an immersive sensory experience from the moment they arrive.
With over a decade of experience working in Ward Village and around Honolulu, SCB, a leading architecture design firm at the forefront of urban living, approached the exterior architecture of Victoria Place with a sleek, minimalistic, and natural design where details are reduced, and the landscape comes into focus. The 40-story tower’s design was informed by the geometric expression and materiality of the island’s unique mid-century architecture. SCB intentionally designed the homes at Victoria Place to provide unobstructed views along the South Shore and toward Diamond Head, enhanced by large operable walls of glass oriented to the ocean that bring abundant light and air into the main living spaces and allow for a seamless indoor/outdoor residential experience.
Recognizing that the natural environment is paramount in Honolulu, SCB’s design for Victoria Place reinforces the deep connection to the land through its architectural language. Throughout, elegant horizontal planes define the building’s major spaces and volumes and visually communicate a stepping down towards the land. Lattice elements of wood and metal filter light and views to create delicate shadow patterns and a dappling effect that is applied throughout, from the lobby to the parking garage screen and up to the building’s crown. The architectural language and restrained material choices are consistently applied across all the major components of the podium and tower, fostering harmony between the building and the landscape.
Weaving the outdoors into the residential space, SCB created open pathways without hard thresholds and there is an overlapping of finishes and ceiling planes, used very deliberately to blur the space between the outside and inside. This seamless flow, as you move from exterior to interior, can be best experienced as one enters the main lobby, the heart of Victoria Place, where natural light floods deep into the space.
Tihany Design – the renowned global boutique design atelier with a focus on luxury hospitality design and credited with working on illustrious projects such as the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Breakers Palm Beach, Four Seasons DIFC in Dubai and award-winning restaurants for celebrity chefs such as Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud – is responsible for the interiors of Victoria Place, which showcase a reverence for the surrounding area’s pristine beauty, culture and exceptional craftsmanship.
Marrying indoors and outdoors, Tihany Design approached the interiors of Victoria Place with an eye toward furthering the architectural narrative created by SCB. Rather than designing the spaces to appeal to modern trends or popular aesthetics, the artfully curated interiors are purposeful and timeless, with design decisions rooted in how people live and what will enhance residents’ daily lives at Victoria Place. The airy lobby, areas for gathering or solitude and tower of homes above are characterized by an immersive, uplifting design scheme of sophisticated lightness that rests on the pillars of local materials, the captivating movement of water, prodigious art pieces, and painstaking attention to detail.
- SCB and Tihany Design wanted to imbue a sense of gracious hospitality at Victoria Place and focus on how guests would be received and entertained in the building. A feeling of warmth and geniality begins along the walk through the park and up to the building’s street- side entry gate that opens into a lush courtyard and leads to the building’s open-air main lobby, giving residents the feeling of entering an exclusive club. The robust landscape design by world-renowned landscape architect Don Vita perfectly captures the essence of Honolulu and authentic island living with signature gardens and tropical plantings that enliven Victoria Place and strengthen the building’s connection to nature.
- A focal point of this impressive project, the grand double-height lobby offers a memorable design moment with massive custom lanterns that immediately draw the eye upward to the vaulted ceilings, imparting a bespoke feeling while accentuating the architecture and celebrating natural materials. The generously scaled lobby is oriented towards Victoria Ward Park and is flanked by a series of single-story indoor/outdoor amenity pavilions featuring a lounge, clubrooms and casual meeting spaces that activate the building’s edge and connect it to the park.
- Victoria Place draws on water’s emotionally centering quality and the integral role it plays in Hawaiian culture and geography. As each residence takes in hypnotic, 180-degree, front-row ocean views along with vivid green scape, its brilliantly devised interiors serve as the canvas for the natural environment to shine. Tihany Design captured this with the use of organic materials such as walnut wood, quartz for countertops, basalt stone for the lobby flooring and limestone for the 5th-floor amenities, as well as the striking water feature that greets residents and guests with the ambient sound of calming water to awaken the senses and hint at the proximity to the ocean.
- Tailoring the firm’s hospitality-forward approach to cater to high-end residential, Tihany Design layered curated furnishings by Molteni & C, Poltrona Frau, B&B Italia, Holly Hunt, Flexform, and many other notable brands with beautiful lighting, textured area rugs and accents, and varied décor pieces throughout the interiors to achieve sophisticated yet welcoming spaces with a cohesive look and feel.
Further elevating the interiors of Victoria Place is the remarkable museum-quality Hawaii- inspired art collection on display at the building. Like a private gallery, Victoria Place showcases one of Ward Village’s most extensive collections of art, including Sunrise to Sunset, a work in bronze and copper by Hawaii’s beloved sculptor Satoru Abe that serves as a centerpiece of the palm garden. Additional pieces such as Seven Sisters, a series of abstract sculptures by Hawaii-based sculptor and painter John Koga, and a pair of large-scale paintings by local contemporary artist Pegge Hopper are representative of the remarkable works that comprise this culturally significant collection, which creates a special experience for residents and brings additional interest and depth to the interiors.
Victoria Place’s expansive amenities suite offers true resort-style living, with two levels of private club-style lifestyle offerings that are an extension of the home. Categorized based on function, the collection of amenities surpasses those found in some of Honolulu’s most esteemed private clubs and allows residents to host and gather in postcard-worthy spaces inspired by the traditional estate home lifestyle with the convenience of not having to leave the building.
- On the lobby level, indoors and outdoors blend effortlessly with a lush palm garden that welcomes you home and leads you into the gracious lobby reminiscent of classic estate homes. Residents will also have access to guest suites and private meeting rooms on this level, along with The Lauhala Pool House, a central indoor/outdoor entertaining space that residents can reserve for private gatherings.
- Above the lobby, the 400’ tower rises from the center of the screened parking podium, splitting the building’s fifth-floor amenity deck into two lanais. The ‘Sunrise Lanai’ faces Diamond Head and focuses on wellness and relaxation with a luxurious spa, state-of-the-art fitness facilities, a lap pool, and gracious lawns for group exercise. The ‘Sunset Lanai’ faces the park and is more social in nature with spaces for gathering and entertaining, including a private dining room and catering kitchen, a wine room with private storage lockers, a great lawn and a scenic infinity pool and spa that overlooks Victoria Ward Park and the harbor beyond. This amenity deck also features a theater, multimedia room, a several poolside cabanas for lounging and grilling.
In the center of Honolulu, Ward Village is a thoughtfully crafted master planned neighborhood guided by a profound respect for nature, a focus on community and a passion for innovation. Under the responsible, forward-looking vision of Howard Hughes, Ward Village honors the distinct history of its land and represents the next generation of sustainable development and land-use planning on O‘ahu—integrating striking architecture, culture and arts, and public open space. Ward Village brings the perfect mix of urban and island living to its location with exceptional residences and unique living, shopping, entertainment, and dining opportunities.
