Seaside compound holds vast treasure from Islamic world

Over the years, very wealthy Americans have often left behind pretentious residential structures. In many cases these castles and manors, dotted all over our nation, have been willed to the public for their enjoyment after their owners have gone to the afterlife.

But Doris Duke’s Shangri La, open to the public through controlled tours, is different.

Yes, she was wealthy beyond imagination. But her home near Diamond Head is a testament to her intelligence, her talent and her taste in Islamic art.

And from the outside Shangri La does not have that affectation of, "Hey, look at me." Quite the opposite.

Inside, her collection of some 2,500 objects wasn’t by any means built on a whim or a passing fancy. It took her 60 years of travel — to Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Central Asia, India, parts of Southeast Asia — plus years of study and consultation to pull it all together.

Piece by piece, it all went into her spare-by-design but stylish home, which with various other buildings on the property stretches over almost 5 acres on the ocean just south of Diamond Head.

That’s not to say the house itself isn’t an example of elegance, beauty and splendor. It certainly is all that and more, but it really is low-key, reflecting Duke’s lifestyle.

The stunning Playhouse at one end of the property is only one story, and the main house, at 14,000 square feet, is also one story, but is terraced into the property, which created several levels.

No one should get the impression that Duke wasn’t willing to spend and spend on building Shangri La. Far from it.

The original land, purchased in 1935, was rocky and rough and sloped down to the water’s edge, but the site wasn’t deemed big enough for what she had in mind.

So the first major landscape transformation was to build a 30-foot-high, cut-stone retaining wall the full length of the property. Added to that was a private breakwater for swimming, which also was intended to eventually create a basin for her yacht.

Of course, that meant Duke wanted to own some of the shoreline, which the law strictly forbids in Hawaii. There is the wonderful story that to resolve that issue she picked up the phone and called Franklin Roosevelt to see if he would intervene.

He said he would if she gave something in return. So she promptly bought the property that is now Kailua Beach Park on the windward side and traded that for her private shoreline swimming hole near Diamond Head.

Duke died in 1993 at age 80, and it was some years before serious restoration work began on the property.

Naturally, the adjacent salt air had taken its toll. So when the public rooms were restored in 2001-2002 under the auspices of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, among extensive capital repairs were the refurbishing of corroded bronze windows and door frames, restoration of the elaborate light fixtures, repair of concrete and plaster walls, removal of hazardous materials, painting and rewiring.

Recent restoration efforts have focused on the landscape and restoration of the Playhouse.

Duke was not only a collector, but in later years she also commissioned some of the art at Shangri La. She was also concerned with the relationship between art and its architectural context and, as a result, many works are embedded in the buildings themselves.

These include ceilings, doors, ceramic tile ensemble, marble columns and fireplaces. These built-in elements are complemented by elegant domestic furnishings.

The house and its collection of Islamic art were never static and Duke had a tendency over the years to continually alter many aspects of her home and its grounds. This factor and others, along with the salt air and now vog, means the owners, the Doris Duke Foundation, must be "incredibly vigilant in our maintenance cycle," according to Debra Pope, the Shangri La boss.

"Shangri La is a fictitious valley in Tibet where people lived extremely long and productive lives shielded from wars and other worldly troubles," says DeSoto Brown, writing in the book "Pohaku." He also said "it is interesting to consider the name of this monumentally constructed home. Shangri La, in the story of the Lost Horizon, is a longed-for but eventually unreachable destination. Perhaps there is a suggestion that even someone with all the wealth anyone could ever want. … could still wish for what they might not be able to attain."

Tours of Shangri La must be arranged in advance through the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Keep Hawaii Hawaii is a monthly column on island architecture and urban planning. Robert M. Fox, president of Fox Hawaii Inc., studied architecture in California and Japan. He was one of the founders of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 1974. David Cheever, owner of David Cheever Marketing, has served on the boards of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the Hawaii Architectural Foundation. Send comments to keephawaiihawaii@staradvertiser.com.