Renovation Architecture by Maui Architect Group
Renovation Design by Hunton Conrad and Associates Inc.
Photography by Auggie Salbosa, Holder Leue, and R Ratkowski

History buffs may trace the origins of Old Hawai`i back to 1778, when King Kamehameha the Great first welcomed Captain Cook and his “floating island” of “living white gods” to Hana Harbor on Maui's remote eastern shore. But, better yet, this part of Hawaii’s past can be experienced first-hand by anyone who makes the exhilarating 52-mile journey along windy Hana Highway -- around 600 curves and over 54 one-lane bridges -- to the wonderfully remote Hotel Hana-Maui and Honua Spa.

Opened as the tiny Ka`uiki Inn in 1946, and later known as the Hana Ranch Hotel, Hotel Hana-Maui is set on 67 verdant acres, including meadows that roll down to the sea, on what was once part of Hawai`i's first sugar cane fields. A recent multi-million-dollar renovation of the property, along with the addition of the 7,650-square foot Honua Spa, by current owners, Ohana LLC (along with managing partner Passport Resorts of San Francisco) has revived the promise of its earlier days through a combination of gracious luxury and the utmost privacy.

“Hana is one of the places in Hawai`i that still feels like the Hawai`i I grew up in, like the Old Hawai`i,” says Hunton Conrad, president of Hunton Conrad and Associates Inc., who was in charge of all the design work for the renovation of the hotel. “The idea was to take this venerable old hotel, an already beautiful building, and bring it back to life and into the modern age.”

The primary focus was on the hotel's main lobby building and the Sea Ranch Cottages (smaller Bay Cottages were freshened up, too), and, while the architecture didn't changed dramatically, the wow factor did.

By the porte cochere, the courtyard entrance to the open-air lobby was re-landscaped with red ceiling wax palms. An infinity-edge pond appears to spill over the sides and disappear into ili'lli (small black river washed pebbles that were traditionally used as flooring in and around Hawaiian homes). Broken pieces of poured concrete, died and impressed to resemble cut lava, were set around the pond. “It's more contemporary now, but still rustic Hawaiian,” Conrad says. The shake roof was replaced with fiberglass roofing material designed to look like shake, but far more resistant to the humid environment. The original arched plaster columns still remain.

For the lobby itself, Conrad took inspiration from a collection of rare, hotel-owned paintings from the 1920s by well-known artist Arman Manookian. “Their colors spoke to me about Old Hawai`i,” he says. A grouping of club chairs, modified from 1920's design and covered in blue, or turquoise, leather, flank a boldly patterned burnt red and ocean-blue couch. Quartzite floors add texture. Off the lobby, the Ka`uiki dining room's high ceilings are filled with a colorful blue and lime-green fabric sculpture. It reflects another Manookian painting, called “Red Sails,” which, in turn represents Hawaiian sailing canoes riding the waves.

In a stylistic way, Sea Ranch Cottages were designed to emulate the historic cottages of the plantation workers, with corrugated metal roofs, simple board-and-batt wooden siding and ocean-view länais. “Together, they look like a little village of small homes,” Conrad says. Inside, they're open and airy, with high triangle trussed ceilings, shuttered windows and traditional lauhala mats on the floors.

With the goal of bringing the interiors back to life, Conrad endeavored to give the rooms a residential feel. Once again, colors -- shades of red, green, brown and orange -- were inspired by the natural surroundings. Patterns, for the sheer curtains and custom bedcovers, were borrowed from traditional Hawaiian kappa bark cloth. Much of the teak furniture, as well as beds that “float above the floor so that the air can breeze around,” Conrad designed himself. “I wanted it to look like 'Robinson Caruso got shipwrecked in Hana,” he jokes. It's rustic, yet elegant, and mixes well with other bamboo and rattan pieces.

The Honua Spa was added later, after the hotel project was completed, and it, too, is deeply reflective of Hana, from the lush colors of the landscaping to the artwork to the open-air design. “Honua means 'of the earth,'” explains Dana Kueffner, who took on the role of construction coordinator of the spa for the hotel and Passport Resorts. “We wanted there to be a sense of balance between the indoors and the outdoors, as well as to impart a sense of Hawaiian tradition.”

Housed in a U-shaped cluster of low-rise stucco bungalows surrounding a common garden, the spa was constructed from a group of fourteen older, and smaller, hotel rooms that had been taken out of the inventory. Spa-goers pass through a graceful entrance (similar to others on the property) constructed of 6x6-inch posts, with gates of woven bamboo that were hand-made in Hana. Passage continues through a covered tunnel, of sorts, that features a cooling “water wall” of black lava rock and slate. “It's a natural transition into the spa,” Kueffner says.

Glass doors lead into a reception area, where guests are met by a spa concierge and whisked off to his-and-hers locker rooms, each with bamboo floors, mahogany lockers and showers with earth-tone travertine tiles inlaid with ili'lli stones. Back walls open onto enclosed gardens with outdoor cold plunge pools made of ili'lli and two private outdoor shower areas.

Nine treatment rooms (five massage suites, including two designed for couples, as well as two facial rooms and two wet rooms) are uncommonly spacious. All feature little seating/consultation areas with wet bars, specially commissioned artwork by local artists and custom cherry wood shoji doors with leaves and flower petals pressed between double paper panels. Floors are salvaged oak. Spa beds are topped with hand-made, contemporary Hawaiian muslin quilts. Again, there are private gardens out back.

Little details add to the sense of place. Bathroom sconces have cream-colored lampshades made of young coconut shells. Bamboo and rattan furniture features custom fabrics by Peter Fazano with stylized ulu (breadfruit) patterns against a traditional kappa pattern background. Outside, an elevated hot tub with an infinity edge looks into a koi pond and down a field of grass into Hana Bay.

While King Kamehameha might never have imagined such a place as Hotel Hana-Maui on Maui's virgin land, those of us who visit there can still enjoy the dreamy, relaxing sense of life that is lived at the Old Hawaiian pace.