Status: Coming Soon
Estimated Move-In Date: TBD
Total units: 148 residential units consisting of 92 2-bedrooms, 48 3-bedrooms, 6 4-bedrooms, and 2 5-bedrooms.
Developer: Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.
Architect: Robert R.M. Stern Architects
Landscape Design: VITA Planning and Landscape Architecture
Interior Design: Champalimaud Design
Melia is one of two towers part of Mohala, an owners club, featuring upscale lifestyle amenities, bespoke concierge programs, and distinctly thoughtful and personal service.
Gracious living spaces and inspired amenities are designed to blend harmoniously with the stunning surroundings. Melia offers a spectacular front-row seat to the island’s allure—a reminder of life’s infinite possibilities.
Melia (block E) is a mixed-use, commercial-residential high-rise building with a tower and base platform structure sited on an 80,051 square-foot parcel. The entire Project will have 148 residential units (approximately 482,339 square feet) and approximately 7,461 square feet of commercial space.
Melia (Block E) represents the latest component of Ward Village. Block E is designed to integrate with the fabric of Ward Village, maximize mauka-makai view corridors and access to Diamond Head and ocean views, and create a pleasant, livable space and enhance the pedestrian experience and circulation around the site and neighborhood.
Ground Level: The ground level will provide both outdoor (approximately 3,993 square feet) and indoor (approximately 3,115 square feet) recreational space, including a plaza and landscaping.
Level 5: The portion of the recreational deck on Level 5 will provide both outdoor (approximately 39,341 square feet) and indoor (approximately 21,784 square feet) recreational space.
Level 6: The portion of the recreational deck on Level 6 will provide both outdoor (approximately 4,706 square feet) and indoor (approximately 8,138 square feet) recreational space.
The design of the rooftop recreation deck comprises a series of gardens, lawns, and pools. The gardens step down as they approach the Ala Moana Boulevard edge of the podium, recalling Bertram Goodhue’s designs for Honolulu streetscapes and mimicking the slopes of mauka areas. The thematic element of open colonnades found at street level repeats itself on the deck, linking the tower with the fitness center, creating outdoor courtyards, and sheltering resident dining areas. Pavilion roofs on the recreation deck are inspired by Dickey-style early 20th Century local cottages.
Melia's architecture embraces and enhances the building’s unique position within Ward Village. The design features an angled, L-shaped massing to maximize Diamond Head and ocean views while maintaining a mauka-makai orientation. This orientation not only increases the number of building corners with open access to views but also breaks down the tower’s overall scale and respects views from surrounding residential towers.
Block E’s tower harmonizes with its neighboring tower on Block D, creating an iconic pair of buildings along Ala Moana Boulevard. The towers complement each other as stepped buildings with a high degree of architectural variety. The tower is composed of windows and volumes that are the same scale as the windows and podium elements below, reinforcing the transition from tower to podium to street and uniting the vertical elements of the neighborhood.
The makai side of the tower features Juliet balcony-style lanai that offer residents access to natural ventilation and encourage the use of sustainable trade wind building cooling design. Large picture windows and projecting bay windows further increase the connection to the surrounding exterior environment.
The building’s material treatments hearken back to some of the most beloved parts of urban Honolulu, including historic areas lined with either low-scale masonry residential and commercial buildings, or taller buildings where masonry plays an important part of the streetscape and facades. A historical connection to the local context is established by using architectural precast facades with the appearance of natural stone masonry. This solid material reflects natural light at different times of day in a way that glass never can—one of the reasons Honolulu’s historic buildings are so beloved. The precast facades are complemented by natural stone details, stone pavers, and rich bronze metalwork at street level with metal and precast screens that reference local precedents and regional motifs.
A major focus of the Master Plan is to create gathering places in the neighborhood. It also attempts to improve the pedestrian experience and foster an urban village lifestyle. Major design objectives of the Master Plan include connected public spaces, a pedestrian supportive environment including the redesign of Auahi Street as a landscaped promenade, preservation of Mauka-Makai view corridors and an enhanced roadway network with canopy trees and pedestrian amenities. To mitigate the unsightliness of structured parking, the Plan anticipates extensive use of "liners" which are buildings designed to have aesthetically pleasing facades and to provide interaction with pedestrian traffic at ground level.
Pedestrians are prioritized throughout the site with broad sidewalks, berms, and planters interwoven with seating niches, stairs, and accessible ramps that connect to an arched, covered colonnade reminiscent of the Dillingham Transportation Building. The retail colonnade offers shade and shelter to strolling pedestrians and encourages lively activity along the shopfronts. Ground level retail also generates evening activity, provides “eyes on the street,” and creates a sense of safety for pedestrians traveling to and through the Ward village.
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