The Louis Berger Group is preparing a historic context on the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex to support facility planning and environmental compliance activities of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command - Navy Region Hawaii. The objective is to provide NAVFACNRH with a comprehensive historical understanding of the active base and its environs, which is critical for a National Historic Landmark and U.S. national war memorial. The context report will aid NAVFACNRH in efficiently managing its historical properties and assets in an environment where simple repairs can require approval of the State Historic Preservation Office.
Previous historical and archaeological surveys at PHNC have been conducted independently, without the benefit of information from mainland archives and without placing base activities in the context of the national defense and political strategies of the United States. Our experts are assembling and synthesizing all information from mainland and Hawaiian archives to create an overarching culture- and landscape-based history of the Pearl Harbor basin. The report will cover the period from the earliest European contacts with the island to the end of the Cold War.
The context we are developing will provide historical information to support identifying, evaluating, and treating the Navy’s historic properties. The study will identify typical building types on base and develop minimum National Register eligibility/integrity standards. We are also mapping character-defining features such as strafing and bomb marks from the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The primary foci of the context report are the areas associated with the PHNC and current and former military lands adjacent to the Pearl Harbor basin, channel, and defensive zone area.