Summary: A long-term plan at the University of Hawaii’s Law School has been drafted to include extensive renovations and upgrades to the older building, including a new community outreach building.
Put Hawaii on your list of potential law schools to attend in the future. For $65 million, the University of Hawaii Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law is going to renovate and expand their school. The law school is planning on increasing their ability to accommodate more students.
The plan involves increasing the floor area from 85,000 square feet to 134,000 square feet as well as revamping the law library and west wing area. They will also add a second floor to the east wing and build a community outreach center for legal needs.
The University of Hawaii spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said, “The master plan is very long term, with a 10- to 20-year horizon. There are no plans in the near future to request funding toward it.” The plan also includes smaller projects like improving the parking lot, landscaping, and pedestrian plaza as well as renovating the courtyard in the west wing.
The community legal outreach center is the most important part of the master plan for the law school. The building will house programs such as a defense clinic, medical/legal partnership clinic, legal aid/family law, Elder/Veteran law, Small Business Clinic, Ka Huli Ao and Native Hawaiian Rights Center, Immigration Law Clinic, Environmental Law Clinic, and the Hawaii Innocence Project. All programs are in desperately in need of larger spaces to allow the programs to fully benefit the community.
The center will also provide a top-quality learning environment for students in a law firm setting. The first phase of the plan will be for the construction of the center, estimated to cost $7 million. Some of the other smaller projects like parking lot improvements will also be done at this time.
The law school opened in 1973 and has outgrown the original spaces.
Photo: campusexplorer.com