Alfred Preis Displaced: The Tropical Modernism of the Austrian Emigrant and Architect of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

By August Sarnitz

Architect, planner, and arts advocate Alfred Preis (1911-1994) dedicated his many creative talents to his beloved, adopted home, Hawai'i. Born, raised, and educated in Vienna, Preis had to escape from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939. Following an arduous journey, he and his wife emigrated to Honolulu, Hawai'i. Briefly imprisoned as "enemy aliens" after the United States joined World War II, Preis emerged as one of Hawaii's leading modern architects in the 1950s and 1960s. His celebrated architectural career spanned twenty-three years. In this time he designed almost one hundred and sixty completed projects ranging from residences, schools and commercial buildings to public parks. Merging his Viennese training with Hawaii's rich culture and unique climate, Preis established a new, regionalist vision for architecture and planning. His designs were specific to the Hawaiian context, its people, Us tropical climate, and its stunning landscape. His crowning achievement was his design for the famed USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in 1962. In later years through his legislative work, he became a visionary advocate and leader for the public arts, and in 1965 formed the Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (HSFCA), the first institution of its kind in the nation. In this new position, he pioneered the first 1% law in the United States, stipulating that 1% of all public building construction be used for the purchase of public art. During his tenure as Executive Director, Preis purchased two thousand artworks by local, national, and international artists, earning him the moniker "Hawaii's art czar." Preis's work on the Memorial and as an advocate has until now overshadowed his gifts as an architect and his body of work in architecture between 1939 and 1963, which includes not only several acclaimed public projects but also illustrates the gradual transition from a European modern language into a regional modernism, unifying both cultures in unique and pioneering ways. All of his work is exclusively located on the archipelago, remote and largely inaccessible to audiences afar. But with this catalog, based on the eponymous 2022 exhibition of his work for the 60th anniversary of the USS Arizona Memorial, it will be clear to a wide audience how his example of adapting modernism to new conditions and transposing his European training and knowledge into a new context influenced many architects that followed. As an exile, Preis's unprejudiced embrace of his new environment and the cultural mix in Hawai'i is legible throughout his work and advocacy, which not only initiated a diverse and cultural influence in architecture and art but also serves as a model for how architecture may address current migratory events. Readers will understand how the displacement and adaptability of Alfred Preis led to the forming of a unique identity within the modern movement that now can be revisited and placed into a contemporary context. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1954600143
• ISBN13: 9781954600140
• Release Date: September 2022
• Publisher: Doppelhouse Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.4" x 9.6"