A community project to create a mural at the site of the former Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel marks the beginning of new efforts to beautify the ailing Banyan Drive.
County Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy of Hilo, through a partnership with Vibrant Hawaii, has organized a series of “Design Labs” intended to gather community members’ memories and hopes for the Waiakea Peninsula to be illustrated in a mural that will be displayed at the hotel’s location while crews contracted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources prepare to demolish the derelict building.
“It gives us a way to engage with the community while DLNR does its thing,” Lee Loy said, adding that the DLNR’s plan to begin the demolition of the building is still on scheduled to start early- to mid-2024.
The labs, Lee Loy said, will highlight the experiences of Native Hawaiian lineal descendants and the cultural significance of the area, which will be expressed in the mural.
She added that she hopes the finished artwork — which might be a single, unified piece or a collage of multiple, smaller pieces — will include a QR code that will link viewers to recordings of lineal descendants discussing the peninsula.
However, the labs will also serve to help inform future development plans for the peninsula and help get the community involved again in an area that has for years been stagnant.
“Hearing a lot of people’s visions for the area is going to be helpful for developing a Banyan Drive Master Plan,” Lee Loy said, adding that community testimony about the area could be memorialized in a new cultural convention center, which has been bandied about for years as a potential new development for the peninsula.
Lee Loy said the mural will be on mobile panels that could be displayed at other construction sites on Banyan Drive or elsewhere on the peninsula in the future, if and when new developments begin.
Jim McCully, member of the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Committee, said the county and DLNR are actively pursuing the master plan, explaining that a contractor is scheduled to deliver a preliminary report about what can feasibly be done in the area by January.
Part of that plan will include comparisons to other waterfront regions in mainland cities, although McCully said the scale of Hilo means that the most comparable sites likely will be mid-sized lakefront or riverside cities, not bustling hubs such as Baltimore.
“It’s good that we’re making this progress, and I’m glad we’re getting support from the administration,” McCully said. “I think everyone’s in agreement that something’s got to be done. Banyan Drive is really an unpolished gem, although in this case it’s more of a scarred and misused gem.”
While one Design Lab was held last week, the next two are scheduled for Nov. 16 at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, although one of them is already full. As of Friday afternoon, the other lab — which takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. — had three spaces still open. Interested parties can register for the event at tinyurl.com/3cn3mtbe.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.