Snyder Hall on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus is scheduled to be demolished in May marking the start of Phase 2 of the UH Mānoa Mini Master Plan. The opening of the $65-million Life Sciences Building in July 2020 signaled the completion of Phase 1 of the plan, which also included the removal of Henke Hall in 2017, where the new state-of-the-art Life Sciences Building stands on the Diamond Head end of McCarthy Mall.
The former occupants of Snyder Hall have relocated to the Life Sciences Building, clearing the way for its removal. Construction barriers went up around Snyder in March, as crews prepare to raze and replace it with temporary landscaping. UH is currently requesting state funding for a new building on the site for flexible learning and office spaces that support modern methods of online delivery, collaboration and advising.
The Mānoa Mini Master Plan, approved by the UH Board of Regents in 2015, is part of the campusʻs Long Range Development Plan. The completion of the Life Sciences Building along with the start of both Phase 2 of the mini master plan and the $41-million renovation of the Sinclair Library into a student success center are significant milestones of the Long Range Development Plan.
Campus vision for the next decade
One of the goals of the Long Range Development Plan is to reduce energy and maintenance costs. Snyder Hall, built in 1962, was identified as the first of four buildings to be renovated, replaced or removed because of age and condition. The other buildings identified are Holmes Hall, Keller Hall and Kuykendall Hall.
The plan also calls for the removal of more than 50, one-story, wooden, portable buildings around campus to create additional outdoor space and make the campus more pedestrian friendly by converting interior roads—Campus Road, Varney Circle and Correa Road—into pedestrian malls.
Sinclair Student Success Center and Life Sciences Building
The new Life Sciences Building and a student success center are also key parts of the long range plan. The $41-million renovation of the Sinclair Library will create the Sinclair Student Success Center next to the Campus Center and the Warrior Recreation Center. Sinclair is intended to be a hub of student interaction with modern, comfortable spaces that encourages students to remain on campus in between classes and after hours for individual study, group study, academic advising and tutoring.
The Sinclair Student Success Center follows the completion of the Life Sciences Building, The three-story, 70,000-square-foot facility with 21 state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories, that will serve more than 500 students daily and support world-class research. The building is the new home to the College of Natural Sciences’ School of Life Sciences along with the Pacific Biosciences Research Center.
The Life Sciences Building was the universityʻs first major design-build project, which is now standard practice at the university.
This capital improvement effort is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Enhancing Student Success (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
