Award-winning renovation wraps Hawaii church in metal for resilience and style
Hawaii bills itself as an island paradise, and certainly it lives up to this reputation for most of the year. But the winter can bring damaging weather systems called kona storms, with high winds and heavy rains. This means durability must be front and center when owners consider reroofing options – even in this typically balmy haven.
Leaders of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) meetinghouse in the Ewa Beach area of Honolulu turned to architectural metal roofing and wall panels to address this concern in their recent renovation project. The project’s design capitalizes on the panels’ standing seam profile to emphasize the building’s contemporary lines.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines kona storms as a type of subtropical cyclone that can generate significant rain and high wind speeds – a March 2026 storm dumped over 5 in. on Ewa Beach, almost a third of its typical 17-in. total, with winds hitting 75 mph. Metal roofs offer the resilience needed to stand up to these conditions over decades of useful life.
Designed by Arroyo Grande, Calif.-based Harris Architecture Design, this project posed challenges for installers with the local firm Pacific Islands Group LLC. Like many LDS facilities, the Ewa Beach meetinghouse is spread out to meet needs beyond regular Sunday worship services. Plus, the design involved wrapping the panels over large portions of the exterior wall to minimize the visual separation between these planes. For the Pacific Islands team, this required a significant attention to flashing to ensure this standing-seam installation looked – one might say – seamless upon completion. Their efforts earned the project Top Roofing Job of the Year in the metal roofing commercial category from the Roofing Contractors Association of Hawaii.
Installing contractors turned to PAC-CLAD Snap-Clad products from Petersen for the architectural metal systems. More than 41,000 sq. ft. of the panels were specified for the roof and walls, all fabricated from .032-gauge aluminum in the company’s Medium Bronze finish. Architects opted to add striations to the panels’ design to further emphasize the lines established by the standing seams and to combat potential oil-canning.
