Schmitzberger, Sarnitz, & McGuire on Alfred Preis

5 February, 2023, 12 AM-12 AM

Tune into SAH/SCC for a panel discussion celebrating the new book, Alfred Preis DISPLACED: The Tropical Modernism of the Austrian Emigrant and Architect of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

Tune into SAH/SCC for a panel discussion celebrating the new book, Alfred Preis DISPLACED: The Tropical Modernism of the Austrian Emigrant and Architect of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor (Doppelhouse Press, 2022). Learn about the work and arts advocacy of this Viennese modernist who fled Nazi-occupied Austria and transformed regional Hawaiian architecture.

We will be joined by editor Axel Schmitzberger, and contributing authors Laura McGuire and August Sarnitz. Axel Schmitzberger is partner in the design build firm Domaen LTD, and principal of the graphic design firm starfish-prime; previously, he worked for Morphosis. August Sarnitz, architect and author of the definitive books on Rudolph Schindler, Adolf Loos, Otto Wagner and others will also join the panel. Laura McGuire, PhD, Assistant Professor of Architectural History, Theory and Criticism at the University of Manoa, Hawaii.

Architect, planner, and arts advocate Alfred Preis, FAIA (1911-1994), dedicated his many creative talents to his beloved, adopted home, Hawai’i. Born to a Jewish family, raised, and educated in Vienna, Preis became an exile after escaping from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939 and briefly being interned as an “enemy alien” when the United States entered World War II. Preis emerged as one of Hawai’i’s leading modern architects in the 1950s and 1960s. His celebrated architectural career spanned 23 years. In this time, he designed almost 180 completed projects ranging from residences, schools, and commercial buildings to public parks. His new, regionalist vision for architecture and planning were specific to the Hawaiian context, its people, its tropical climate, and its stunning landscape. Preis’s crowning achievement was his design for the famed USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in 1962.

The program will illustrate the transition from a European modern language into a regional modernism, unifying both cultures in distinct and pioneering ways.

Alfred Preis Displaced—Sunday, February 5, 2023; 1-2:30 PM PST; ; $5; https://www.sahscc.org/site/index.php?function=event_details&id=478