The Cause
During the many years Val Ossipoff practiced in Hawaii, he had a huge impact on residential and commercial architectural design. Most of his work was a thoughtful bridge of modernism with tropical design. Some have said his work was “culturally-intensive” reflecting his Russian heritage, strong Asian influence from his childhood in Japan and his deep appreciation for his home in the islands.
That legacy today sits in 66 boxes of folded drawings and papers given to Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii.
And therein is the problem: access is limited and difficult.
The quest of the Hawaii Architectural Foundation and the AIAS (American Institute of Architects Students- Hawaii Chapter), with your help, is to provide the UH library with special flat file drawing cabinets so the archives department can open up these treasures and make them usable and available to students, teachers, owners and builders.
The Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, estimated a total cost of roughly $585,000 spanning over a wo year time period. Our mission is to raise initial awareness of the cause to the overall community so that we may start to take the steps towards fully archiving and presenting the Vladimir Ossipoff architectural documents. We need your help to forever preserve these invaluable documents, so that the future generation of designers and architects may utilize and learn from them.
Thank you for your help.
Dilemma
The Ossipoff Documents Restoration Project is the first step in a journey to fully recovering and presenting the many documents and files in the Ossipoff collection.
As the Hamilton Library's financial need reaches $585,000, we are hoping to build momentum through this project to spearhead a larger movement in making these documents available.
Because the funds will be going to the Hamilton Library, where they already have a developed preservation department. The risks merely lie in not being able to raise the funds. It would be a shame if these architectural documents remain in the boxes, unavailable to students and the broader community.
The Impact
The ultimate goal of the Ossipoff project is to benefit the next generation of designers by making available to them these invaluable documents. Once the library has the architectural papers prepared, students, architects, and members from the community will be able to view them.
Other Ways You Can Help
We appreciate any help that we may get. Half of the effort is to raise awarness of the existance of the Vladmir Ossipoff architectural documents. It's people like you that will benefit the future archtiects, designers, and educators of the future!
Spread the word, share the link, check the facebook page, and come to the events!
