Architecture Day

It was a Saturday for the monthly outing with the kids in the mentoring program. Today's theme was architecture, and it started with a guided tour of architectures in downtown Honolulu by an architect who is a Rotarian. One of the objectives of this mentoring program was to expose the kids to many occupations, and I think it was really neat to have working professionals introduce their work. It was even interesting for adults like me.

Many buildings in downtown are nice and feels historical, but had no knowledge about it, so it was interesting. The first photo is the building which was the highest building in Honolulu until 1911, and the first to have an elevator.

This one is more 'modern' style, not much decoration. I don't have a picture here, but we also saw a 'postmodern' building. It was covered with glass walls, and looked very nice :)

Then, we visited an architect firm and the kids got to try 'Google SketchUp.' It is a freeware that let you design a 3-D unit like this one. It's fascinating that you can make a house of your own this easily, and you can place it in Google Earth. I really want to try and make the nicest house, but I can see it would take a lot of time... Maybe, when I have lots of time.