AI-generated conceptual illustration; not a depiction of actual students or an official site plan.
Students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are getting an early say in what one of the campus’s busiest walkways could become. During the Welina Mānoa: Kick-Off! event on September 10, the UH Campus Design Lab asked students to test ideas for a redesigned Legacy Path using a hands-on 3D model.
The exercise is the opening stage of a larger effort to make the corridor a more comfortable place to walk, meet friends and spend time between classes. The project will also consider the future of nearby Andrews Amphitheater.
A campus route used for more than walking
Legacy Path connects Campus Center with Dole Street and the university’s main parking structure. Students cross it on the way to class, but the space already does several jobs. It hosts campus fairs and pregame activities, while food trucks use the area during the school day.
That mix of everyday traffic and special events gives planners a practical question to solve: how can the path keep people moving while also offering inviting places to stop?
Students move the pieces themselves
At the Campus Design Lab booth, participants worked with scale models of the area. They moved miniature food trucks, benches and other features around the model to show where they would place them and how they might use the space.
Hao Shen Zheng, a senior studying computer engineering, told UH News that the model made the choices easier to picture. He also welcomed the chance for students to influence a part of campus they experience every day.
“Students actually have to experience these things,” Zheng said. “They should have a say in these types of designs.”
Feedback continues through the fall
The design team plans to collect ideas from several hundred students during the fall 2026 semester. The project’s official kickoff is scheduled for October, so the September activity was less about choosing a finished layout and more about learning how different students use the corridor.
Brian Strawn, UH Mānoa’s planning and spatial experience director, said early comments point to a need for different kinds of gathering spots. Some students want larger, active public areas. Others are looking for smaller places where they can sit, meet or wait between classes.
Those preferences can vary with a student’s daily routine. Someone commuting from off campus may move through Legacy Path differently from a student living in a residence hall or nearby neighborhood. Gathering input from both groups gives the design team a better picture of what the space needs to do.
Student input has shaped other projects
This is not the first time UH Mānoa has invited students into its campus-planning process. Feedback from earlier workshops informed the McCarthy Mall renovation now underway and the completed renovation of Aloha Towers.
The Legacy Path conversation is still at the research stage, but the tabletop exercise gave students a direct way to turn everyday observations into design ideas. More information about the planning effort and the September event is available from University of Hawaiʻi System News.
