Kaʻu District Gym & Shelter

Mitsunaga & Associates (MAI) provided architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering services for this project. The project included the design and construction of a new 38000 s.f. community gym, a 3000 s.f. multipurpose building, and a paved parking for 162 vehicles, half of which could be used as community fairgrounds.

This gym facility houses a basketball court that meets the NCAA requirements. It also houses three side/overlapping basketball courts, volleyball courts, and badminton courts. The gym facility has two large locker rooms with showers, dressing areas and lockers. There is a separate weight room for training, recreating room, meeting facilities, and concession stand.

The Multi-Purpose building offers a wide open space for large gatherings which has the capability to create smaller rooms with folding panels. The Multi-Purpose room opens up to a spacious courtyard.

Challenges and Resolution:

A major project challenge from the start was a tight time frame of 3 months to complete construction documents and design. Having all disciplines in-house, the project team learned to work more efficiently with each other and to communicate effectively between departments enabling MAI to meet the deadline.

Successful Elements:

Successful project elements include coordinating with the community, school, Hawaii County, and Parks & Recreation Department to design to build a facility that would satisfy everyone’s needs.

Lessons Learned:

This project has shown that Mitsunaga can complete projects with short deadlines if all designs and construction documents can be done within MAI. The project team has demonstrated it has the tools and synergy to tackle aggressive projects such as this.