Building a little town

The Academy of Arts is displaying students' models of some key structures on Oahu

On Nov. 28, 17 Le Jardin Academy seniors and juniors, along with art teacher Shoni Devitt, stood in the Honolulu Academy of Arts as their "My Little Town" exhibit was unveiled.

Le Jardin High School Newspaper The Contender Faculty adviser Mrs. Susan St. John Senior Co-Editors Will Pelleteri and Kierstan Sussman Address 917 Kalanianaole Hwy. Kailua, HI 96734 Telephone 261-0707 Principal Vicki McNeill Mascot Bulldog Enrollment 778

Thirty-five terra cotta structures, models of significant and iconic buildings all over Oahu, were placed on display. Le Jardin's exhibit runs concurrently with a display of the work of Vladimir Ossipoff, a renowned architect who designed more than a thousand buildings in Hawaii, and will remain on display until Jan. 27.

The idea for the project came to Devitt by chance. Sitting in Ceramics Hawaii, she noticed small clay models of houses from New Orleans' French Quarter. Devitt liked the loose feel of the models and decided to replicate Hawaii buildings in this style. Originally, she pitched the idea for a project to Principal Victoria McNeill. It was too late in the school year for the school to sponsor Devitt's plan, so she presented it to the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Initially, Devitt limited buildings for the project to the Windward community. She received grants from the Academy, but the acquisition of this money came with the condition that all of Oahu should be included, as well as presenting the history of each structure.

Devitt faced difficulty early in the project. "Getting the list of buildings was really hard," she remembered.

The problem was resolved by outsourcing the task of compiling a suitable number of historic buildings to an architecture company, but the project soon faced another problem. Devitt had established an interview process to ensure that only serious students were working on the project, but too few students joined during the summer. Subsequently, she allowed other seniors and juniors onto the project.

Starting in September, students began documentation of all of the buildings. At each site, students sketched and photographed the structure. In many cases, student reporters interviewed custodians or owners of the buildings to gain a firsthand account of the history.

Once documentation was completed, the actual construction began. Students formed each model from terra cotta clay, reddish brown in color. Students worked on their own time, coming in both on weekends and after school to complete the project. Sterling Lambert expressed his relief when the last building came out of the kiln.

"It was a good sense of accomplishment," he said, "to see the product of all the work we put in."

Devitt was impressed with the exhibit and felt the look as a whole was professional. The clay models sat on shelves along a narrow white hallway, and the exhibit adhered to the "minimalist and classy" look that distinguished the other exhibits in the museum.

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From Russia to the isles:
2 boys, 1 history

Many students at this school have been friends for a long time. However, not many can claim to have a history like Adam Trecker and Alex Johnston, two boys who have known each other longer then they have known their parents, and whose unique friendship is one to marvel at.

Both boys lived in an orphanage the first three to four years of their lives in Novosibirsk, a Russian town near Siberia. Though their memories are sparse, Trecker and Johnston agree that life in the orphanage was hard. They were taught to stay in the cribs in the morning until someone came to get them. The food consisted mostly of oatmeal and potatoes. Johnston remembers the punishment for swearing was getting your mouth washed out with soap.

Trecker smiled at that. "Alex was swearing? We were so young, I could barely form words," he said.

"Everyone in the room had a small crib," Trecker recalled, "but Alex got the big bed!" Johnston and Trecker hung out all the time in the orphanage and were best friends from the beginning.

Within six months of each other, both boys got adopted by their parents. Moms Nikki Johnston and Christina Trecker arrived in Russia and spent the last month out of a six-month process there meeting the children and finalizing the plans for adoption. Johnston remembers how Trecker was quick to grab the hand of his new mother. When they arrived in Hawaii, it took some time for them to get adapted to their new environment.

"The first time we went to the beach," Johnston remembers, "we were walking with our knees high in the air because we thought the sand was snow." Trecker and Johnston were fascinated by some of the things that kids growing up in America take for granted.

"I was fascinated by a lamp because I had never seen it before," Trecker said. "I kept clicking the lamp on and off because it was cool."

Bev Allen, Le Jardin Academy's elementary school music teacher, remembers the excitement and apprehension when Alex and Adam arrived. Both boys were in her preschool music class, and she recalled with great affection one special day in her class.

"When they first came to class, they were, of course, very quiet and very lovable. You could tell that they had been taken good care of. The liked to be hugged and give hugs, especially Alex. One day I was showing and reading a lovely book about snow. The boys looked at each other with the biggest smiles and began talking in Russian to each other without stopping. Oh! The joy on those little faces!" Allen said. "I will always remember."

Although both Trecker and Johnston are happy Kailuans, they still have a few relics of their previous Russian lives. Johnston has a Russian doll and little Russian toy cars from the orphanage. Every year the two keep in touch with other adopted children from different Russian orphanages at a yearly Russian Christmas party.

For many adopted children, the matter of their biological parents is often a curiosity. Trecker has plans to go to Russia to find his biological mother after college. All he has is his mother's name, but one of the nurses at his old orphanage remembers him and is helping him locate her. If the boys go together, it will be their first time back in Russia since they were adopted.

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"If you were a building, what would you be?"

Jessica Shiarella
"Matsumoto's Shave Ice, because it is very family-oriented."

Brita Hofwolt
"A one-room house made out of twigs and mud, because I can't see myself as the Taj Mahal."

Kristi Leong
"The Eiffel Tower, because it's different and kind of out of the blue and unique."

Monica Hika
"An opera house, even though I sing badly."

Sarah Failla
"A zoo, because I'm wild."

Tai Stewart
"A small, specialty restaurant because I'm one of a kind."

Dinah West
"I would be a motor home because I don't want to be confined to one place."

Adam Kenner
"A temple, so people would bow down to me."

Meghan Van Bergeijk
"I'd be a cafeteria so I could be full of food."