Mary K. Pukui Learning Commons

For generations, Punahou School has created opportunities for students to learn through exploration, collaboration, and hands-on discovery. As educational needs continue to evolve, so do the spaces that support them. Through a longstanding partnership with Punahou, Office Pavilion has worked on projects across campus that help students, faculty, and staff learn, work, and connect in meaningful ways.

One of the more significant recent projects is the Mary Kawena Pukui Learning Commons, a 53,300-square-foot LEED-certified facility serving students in grades 9–12. Renovated from the former Cooke Library, the Learning Commons was designed to support a wide range of learning experiences while creating new opportunities for collaboration, creativity, and community.

The Learning Commons brings together flexible classrooms, design and engineering labs, emerging technology studios, culinary and sustainability spaces, conference rooms, offices, work areas, and indoor-outdoor gathering spaces. Throughout the building, furnishings were selected to support different ways of learning and working, from quiet study and focused research to group projects and informal collaboration.

At the heart of the Learning Commons is an open library designed to encourage both individual learning and shared discovery. Technology-enabled study rooms provide space for meetings, student organizations, faculty collaboration, and community use. Specialized labs and studios give students opportunities to engage with design, technology, and hands-on problem solving in environments that can adapt to changing programs and future needs.

Named in honor of Mary Kawena Pukui, the Learning Commons reflects a commitment to preserving and sharing knowledge across generations. The facility provides a place where students can gather, exchange ideas, develop new skills, and build connections with one another while remaining grounded in the values and traditions that have long shaped the Punahou community.

For David Chang of Office Pavilion, the project carried particular significance. “I'm proud to have worked with Punahou for so many years on such varied projects and especially pleased to contribute to their new learning commons.

I have fond memories of the previous Cooke Library, though I was surprised by how little had changed in the decades since I attended. There was a room labeled ‘Magazines.’ There were rooms on the lower level that I remembered from being on the paper or editing VHS movies. The study carrels and chairs had remained the same all that time.

This was a remarkable accomplishment that set a high bar for the quality and longevity we wanted to achieve. My goal was simple: ‘These should last for decades, and kids not yet born will sit and enjoy these spaces.’  We were creating future nostalgia.

I was deeply involved in the specifications and selections, and I'm pleased with how cohesively everything works together. Architecture and furniture play off each other, table legs echo the beams overhead, and the grand lānai furniture color reflects the pointing in the stonework and the earth of the ball field. It is a beautiful place, and I'm certain it will support learning for many years to come.”