For 10 months and more than 1,500 hours of labor, a team of volunteers built a traditional Hawaiian meetinghouse at Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, with rocks for the walls and foundation, tree trunks for the framing, plant-based cordage to lash the framework and Loulu palm fronds for the thatched roof.

Not a nail or screw was used.

On Monday the arboretum will unveil its latest centerpiece: Hale Halawai, which will serve as a gathering place and as a visual connection to the Hawaiian culture, said Liloa Dunn, the arboretum’s ethnobotanist and lead staff member for the project.

"It feels good to almost be done. It’s a relief," Dunn said. "I’m looking forward to utilizing the area."

Dunn said the hale will be used for educational workshops, from medicinal practitioner classes to tapa cloth making.

Since November about 40 volunteers have participated in a series of workshops to build the 20-foot-high, 30-foot-long hale.

"This hale is a culmination of what we do in ethnobotany, how to use plants and how other people utilize plants," Dunn said.

The primary plants used were brought over from Hawaii island and Maui. Part of the structure was made from Maui’s olokea tree. The main roof beam was built from an ohia tree from Hawaii island.

"It’s essential for everyone to know what it takes to build shelter," said Leisa King, 27, a University of Hawaii at Manoa student from Waimanalo who helped build the hale.

"Participating in the community helps connect people to their roots," she said. "Instead of sitting on the couch, we can all come out here and do something."

The workshops were conducted every other month for two days under the leadership of Francis Palani Sinenci, master hale builder from Hana, Maui. Each workshop focused on assembling a different part of the hale. For instance, the first workshop concentrated on rock wall building, while classes Friday and today focused on roof thatching.

David Sylva, 25, said, "It’s a very authentic style of building. It’s been an awesome and really good learning experience."

Sylva, who traveled between his home in Kula to Honolulu to volunteer for the project, is trying to become a certified hale builder through Sinenci’s hale building company in Hana, Hale Kuhikuhi.

"This experience has been good insight into how it used to be back in the day," Sylva said. "It’s showed me that by working together life is easier."

The project was funded by grants from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the Atherton Family Foundation. Dunn said he estimated the entire undertaking cost $80,000.

Established in the 1950s, the arboretum is home to more than 5,000 tropical plant species. It is the only university botanical garden situated in a tropical rain forest in the U.S. as well as the only easily accessible tropical rain forest on Oahu.

There will be a Hawaiian blessing of Hale Halawai on Sunday, and the public is welcome to visit Monday.

"(The hale) is about people going back to their culture," Sinenci said. "We’ve lost our culture over the years, and this is about bringing the past into the future."