Varney Circle and Fountain honor the memory of revered Normal School teacher Ada Susan Varney. The fountain, completed in 1932, is the work of Cornelia McIntyre Foley and Henry H. Remple. Varney Circle serves as a symbolic hub connecting the original UH Mānoa quad with McCarthy Mall, Campus Center, Hawaiʻi Hall, Fine Arts, and the Queen Liliʻuokalani Center. In concert with the UH Mānoa Campus Framework team and the UH Office of Project Delivery, the University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center (UHCDC) agreed to organize a focused, proof-of-concept “Design Tank” to help explore the full potential of Varney Circle as a campus focal point. Over the course of this two-day charrette, Design Tank participants—landscape architects, architects, urbanists, and built environment students—will explore new ideas, concepts, cultural connectedness, and images that help envision the future of this historically significant and geographically central site.
