Hawaii State Capitol

The Hawaii State Capitol is marked by its radical departure from the traditional, dome-topped government buildings found across the United States. Completed in nineteen sixty-nine and designed by John Carl Warnecke and the firm Belt, Lemmon and Lo, the structure is an open-air modernist building. Its exterior is framed by forty slender, sixty-foot-tall columns intended to mirror the shape of royal palm trees, while the entire complex sits within a reflecting pool meant to evoke the Pacific Ocean.