Writer Eckhart Tolle once professed, “Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities“, an observation intended to demystify the stifling hold a past may have in shaping the future. Yet, in reviewing the breadth of Hawaii-born architect Greg Warner’s work, one recognizes the possibilities of utilizing memory ? whether personal, collective, or historical ? positively, as a tool transporting solutions awaiting rediscovery. In a profession often demanding the erasure of the past, Walker Warner’s designs across Hawaii express a profound respect for the pre-existing in relation to the imagined future, a contextual designer whose utilization of remembrance of land, people, architecture, and lifestyle has resulted in some of the finest modern residences across the Hawaiian islands. Kalihiwai Pavilion. Kauai, Hawaii. 
In speaking with Warner, one gets the impression the architect has discovered an agreeable balance between dreaming and doing. His thoughtful observations arrive as naturally and leisurely as the tide. As one half of the firm’s Walker Warner Architects namesake (the other being founding partner, Brooks Walker), the soft-spoken Warner might elucidate calmly about the architectural history of the Hawaiian islands, but the depths of his understanding of Hawaii’s unique landscape and lifestyle are most evident in observing the exacting details his projects reveal in immediacy, and more importantly, over a span of time. ...