Canterbury Place

Moving outside the box of rectangular slab-shaped apartments, Canterbury Place was one of the earliest sculptural high-rises in Honolulu. The optically enticing thirty-nine-story tower is highly three dimensional, presenting a series of receding and advancing elements, animated by fluid, rounded corners. Smooth, cream-colored, flowing lanai articulate each story and contrast with the vertical corner elements perforated by “porthole” windows. Projecting corner lanai and bay windows provide a strong terminus to the top ten floors. In addition to the pleasing tower, a dynamic interaction is established with the street. Bulging first-floor bay windows establish a focal point, and a below-sidewalk ambulatory leads to shops and restaurants. Access to the complex is at the rear, and the entrance's wrought-iron fence offers security while allowing for an intimate, sheltered, open-air lobby.

Warner Boone attended the University of Southern California on a baseball scholarship in the early 1950s, graduating with a degree in architecture. After working for a few years in California, he moved to Hawaii in 1961, joining Clifford Young's office, which at the time was working on the East-West Center (OA122.5) with I. M. Pei. He next worked for John Rummell and Associates. Here Boone met Desmond Brooks, and in 1972, they formed a partnership, which lasted until 1979, at which time Boone opened his own office. Boone received numerous commissions from his former employee-turned-real-estate developer Bruce Stark, and this designer-developer team provided Honolulu with an impressive array of flashy and original high-rise designs, including Waikiki Trade Center (OA138); Diamond Head Vista Apartments (OA147); Yacht Harbor Towers (1973) and Discovery Bay (1977) at 1600 and 1778 Ala Moana Boulevard, respectively; Royal Iolani (1978; 581 Kamoku Street); Admiral Thomas (1978; 1221 Victorian Street); and Waterfront Towers (1990; 415 South Street). In 1992, Boone closed his Honolulu office and relocated to San Diego to work on projects with Stark in that city, as well as in Corpus Christi and Colorado.