The current publication and traveling exhibition on the work of Austrian émigré architect Alfred Preis (1911–1994) were developed, designed, edited, and curated by Prof. Axel Schmitzberger, R.A. They expand upon an online exhibition launched in 2021 on the occasion of Preis’s 110th anniversary—the first major effort to reintroduce the US-Austrian architect to an international audience.

Born and educated in Vienna, Preis fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939 and settled in Honolulu. After a brief internment as an “enemy alien,” he emerged as one of Hawai‘i’s leading architects from the 1940s through the 1960s, completing nearly 180 projects over a career spanning more than twenty-five years, including the USS Arizona Memorial. His work forged a distinctive synthesis of Viennese modernism with Hawai‘i’s climate and cultures.

The exhibition Alfred Preis Displaced traces Preis’s life and work through eight thematic clusters presented as faux newspapers, referencing his prominent presence in local media. Featuring restored historical photography, contemporary documentation, drawings, models, and over 100 images and videos, the traveling exhibition has been shown in Honolulu, New York, and at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum. It is accompanied by a 274-page full-color catalogue (2022), which was awarded a 2025 Docomomo US Modernism in America Documentation Citation of Merit. 

HAPPENING AT THE IDC

Hear Axel Schmitzberger speak about Alfred Preis and Hawaiian Modernism during Session 2 – Modern Housing Typologies in the the Tropics.

Wednesday, March 18, 11:15am–1pm