As seen in Maui no ka oi Magazine, Volume 6, No. 3. Fall 2002 www.mauimagazine.net by Michael Stein Maluhia, Wailea's latest oceanfront community, is a collection of 14 custom-designed residences destined to give new meaning to the phrase "luxury development." Where else can you find a home whose resident concierge program not only will book your reservations for golf, tennis, and other Wailea Resort activities, but also provides housekeeping and home-delivered groceries-or, in case you'd rather not cook, room service from the adjacent Renaissance Wailea hotel? All that luxury aside, the creators of Maluhia have worked hard to steep the project in classic aloha spirit, from the Hawaiian blessings that consecrate each lot, to architectural and visual motifs that reflect the all-embracing Hawaiian landscape. It's that landscape that first, with staggering impact, announces itself to the visitor. On the day David Liscio of Wailea Realty takes me on a stroll through Maluhia, the project is still a work in progress. Construction of the six-foot gates that will guard the entrance to Maluhia has just begun, although an intricate bronze sculpture by Satoru Abe is already in place, suggesting both the Hawaiian landscape and a throng of protective spirits. The first model homes are still being built, and lots are being blocked out. But past the first homes, the beginnings of impressive landscaping, is The View. Across Maluhia's 10.5 acres of Wailea beachfront, the homes are precisely situated on terraced elevations and view corridors that change 15 feet between lots, the celadon tile roofs leading the eye to a palm-lined crescent shoreline that seems to embrace all of Maui Nui. The islands of Kaho'olawe and L¯ana'i, and the green cloudswept West Maui pali rise out of the white-capped but still blue immensity of the Pacific. Surrounded by such an expanse, Maluhia aspires to be a true k¯ipuka: a Hawaiian oasis. Each spacious 5,400- to 9,200-square-foot residence is built to ensure the owner's privacy and sense of exclusivity. Coral-clad walls are rising up around each home. The only aspect of the community that everyone shares equally, thanks to ingenious landscape planning, is The View. Within those bastions, openness to air, light and nature is the guiding principle. Generously utilizing the "inside-outside" flow that's perhaps Asian architecture's greatest gift to Hawaiian buildings, the homes are built around open atrium courtyards that will have pleasant fountains and pools burgeoning with anthurium and heliconias. The family room, kitchen, and living room all flow together towards glass sliding pocketed doors that open up to ocean breezes and to The View. The house at Site 4 harmonizes symbolically with both nature and the history of Hawai'i through its exterior ¯ohi'a tree pillars and its view of a waterfall across the l¯anai. Other than sharing this common architectural approach, no two homes are alike. The exterior of Site 2 is surfaced in flagstone and grass, whereas in 4, one steps into the home across large squares of Chinese granite. Site 4's house will be walled in teak with stucco finishes, while 2 features Asian hardwood walls of nyatoh and mahogany. In the model home at Site 2, the furniture built into the bathrooms already includes a "colonial Japanese" spindled-leg table and the blond wood Japanese tansu cabinetry opposite the Jacuzzi whirlpool bath and adjacent outdoor shower. Francis Oda, chairman of the architectural firm Group 70, is Maluhia's architect of record-and the man credited with coining the term "kama'¯aina architecture." Each of Group 70's projects, from resorts to mixed-use developments, strives to incorporate a "built environment" that captures the ambience and flavor of host cultures from Hawai'i to Indonesia. This time, Group 70 and PRM Realty (parent company of Maluhia's developer) have taken that commitment to a whole new level, creating Crisscross-a joint venture that will provide regional arts and crafts for their own and other projects. Crisscross is the brainchild of Sheryl Seaman, Group 70 president, and Larry Frej, executive vice-president of PRM Realty. Seaman is an architect; Frej has degrees in landscape architecture and urban design; both saw the need for a new entity that could provide unique, reasonably priced architectural materials and interior furnishings for projects like Maluhia. Frej knows Southeast Asia well, and can take drawings of island icons like maile lei and birds-of-paradise to the "backyard areas" off the tourist track, where metal- and woodworkers, potters and weavers bring centuries of craftsmanship to bear in sculpting or carving Crisscross designs into doors, panels and other creations. One extraordinary cultural hybrid, a traditional Maui kapa design by Pua Vandorp, Hawaiian historian and artist, was rendered in a stone mosaic by a carver in central Java. Both Seaman and Frej state that there is a final force involved in all their selections: the homeowner. "You envision it, we create it," Frej told me. Well, not altogether; Maluhia has fairly strict C&Rs. But homebuyers have a substantial book of interior "palettes"-designs, materials and textures-to choose from, make modifications to features like pools and spas, and even tweak the architectural shell a little. Fair enough, given that Wailea's detached single-family condominiums cost from $5.2 to $18 million. The firm of Walters Kimura Motoda, Maluhia's landscape architect, has provided 14 different landscape plans for buyers to choose from. A "plant palette" shows buyers the types and sizes of plants, growth habit, color of fruit and/or flowers, and the color, texture, and shape of the leaves. "Buyers have personal preferences with regard to the color of the flowers," landscape architect Mike Motoda told me, "or the amount of maintenance required. Some people like edible plants, while others like plants they can use for decoration." A homeowner can order a Japanese garden-or simply enjoy the gardens that will overspread the community. Native vegetation like naupaka has already been planted in the makai (oceanside) areas, especially around the ¯ohi'a fence that divides Maluhia from the beach (and provides plenty of access and room for beachgoers). Tropical plants such as plumeria trees, Hong Kong Orchid trees, and coconut palms, and blooms like ginger and hibiscus will blanket the grounds along the watercourses. The gardens will be unified by streams that wend their way beside the homes through channels reminiscent of traditional Hawaiian 'auwai (irrigation canals) fringed with elephant-ear taro. Occasionally cascading into waterfalls, the watercourses culminate in a lily pond with a pavilion in the heart of this oasis. How Maluhia will all come together is a sight for the future, but there is already charming evidence of success in the beach club pavilion. The comfortably small, trellised structure rises on coral-clad columns from quartzite stone flooring, and features accent pieces like Chinese porcelain bowls and plates harvested from sunken merchant ships. The furnishings have a roughhewn but graceful natural elegance: coconut-wood tables, teak barstools around a teak-and-granite bar, and, on the wall, that Hawaiian kapa tile tapestry. As of this date, prospective buyers are only beginning to bring their muses to the collaborative process; sites are beginning to sell, and the model homes, Sites 2 and 4, are near completion. But even an architectural tyro can appreciate how the convergence of Oda's architecture, Crisscross's approach to local crafts and design, and Mike Motoda's imaginative landscaping creates the special look and feel of Maluhia.