In 2018, MASON was honored with the Bronze Reconstruction award from national Building Design + Construction Magazine for the rehabilitation of the former Honolulu Advertiser Building and new home to Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company (HDCC).

The HDCC building occupies a prominent corner at the edge of the Hawaii Capitol District and the goal of the project was to maintain its historic character.  Accessibility was improved and other exterior elements were restored.  Windows were replaced to attain better energy performance, but maintained the historic fenestration pattern.  The project obtained a LEED Gold rating under the Commercial Interiors v4 rating system.

The grand staircase, with its terracotta balustrade and tile floors, was restored.  A stained glass window installed around 1970 was retained and became part of the second floor landing through the glass wall separating it from the conference room. 

At one time almost all of the second floor had wood block flooring.  All of that flooring had been covered with carpet or had been replaced with tile - and a lot was termite or water damaged.  Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Company salvaged and incorporated over 1,000 square feet of this flooring at the second floor, newly finished, recalling its original use. 

Collaboration plays a huge part in the way HDCC does business so one or more conference rooms was built into each floor.  The main conference room features a cast-in-place concrete table designed by Chris Baze of HDCC.  This space can be connected, or not, to the main lobby through an electrified glass wall.

Other elements in the building, whether it be the concrete column flares or the safe, were retained and featured where possible. 

Although private offices did take many of the perimeter window areas, the open office plan, with nearly 12 foot ceiling heights at the perimeter, brought light and contact with the exterior into the building, as illustrated here from an interior third floor conference room.