lead architect: Jeffrey Long, , Long & Associates Inc
project architect: , Jennifer Okino, LAI
interior designer: Cindi White, LAI
builder: Dwight Burdick Construction


“When people walk into a house,” says architect Jeffrey Long, “I want their instant response to be one of comfort, ease, and happy awareness of the space around them.” Long and his team at Long & Associates Inc. (LAI) achieved that goal with an award-winning residence they created on Waiholo Street in East Honolulu. At 4,600 square feet this one-story, four-bedroom, oceanfront home is a true concept showcase; yet it’s anything but show-offy.

There are no grand staircases. No gaudy window treatments screaming “look at me!” In fact, the place offers no architectural or design stunts of any kind. Instead, the home comprises a simple yet masterful integration of elements – both manmade and natural -- inspired by a variety of cultures and traditions. The result is serene, subtle, and unobtrusive.

Effortlessly blending with nearby expanses of sky and sea…wide open to rolling lawns and tropical breezes…the contemporary home invites residents and guests to kick off their shoes and melt into the scenery too. For its consummate yet low-key artistry, this LAI concept home won the Hawai’i Building Industry Association’s 2003 “Renaissance Award” and a second prestigious prize from the American Society of Interior Designers.

“To me, designing the Waiholo home was a unique opportunity to enhance a potentially wonderful neighborhood,” Long recalls. Waiholo Street is the main avenue abutting the famed Waialae Country Club, site of the Sony Open. Beyond the golf course lies nothing but the Pacific. “Ours was one of the first custom homes in the area, adding value and attention to a community that has since blossomed,” Long says. “We like to think that we helped encourage that. We began with the determination to take advantage of that spectacular golf course view, looking out to a cresting vision of the ocean beyond.”

When Long & Associates Inc. purchased the property, the place -- to put it mildly -- lacked inspiration. The 12,400 square foot lot was the site of a drab 1950s ranch house, made of concrete blocks. Few windows faced that glorious horizon. LAI knocked down the entire structure, leaving only the swimming pool intact. Then Jeffrey Long and his team went to work -- walked the grounds, soaking up the site. After considerable brainstorming by the project team, Long retreated to his drawing board for some dreaming and scheming.

“We began by seeking to situate the home according to sun, sea, and wind -- an approach that has always worked for us before,” Long recounts. “This physical orientation serves to maximize sightlines and integrate the structure with its environment. In this case, given the lot’s unusually large ocean frontage -- over 100 feet in length -- and its expansive, ‘borrowed view’ from the adjacent golf course, we were looking to create a home that really embraced that vista and drew it in.”

What LAI ultimately came up with is a roughly H-shaped floor plan with thicker-than-average, Mediterranean-style walls supporting vast windows, deep pocket doors, and a classically Hawaiian-inspired, double-pitched roof. “This gave us a greater degree of transparency on the golf course side,” Long points out. “The front door feels like a courtyard, providing protection from street side. Once you walk in, you are visually almost on the golf course. We did this with a long steel beam that spans the great hall, allowing us to build larger-than-usual expanses of glass and pocket doors.”

From the point of view of the entry, the “left wing” of the H-shaped floor plan houses the master bedroom (with its ocean views, master bath and outdoor garden shower). This wing also hosts two smaller bedrooms, each with a full private bath. The opposite “right wing” of the home contains the kitchen; dining area; mini-master suite (suitable for a home office, if desired); family room; utility room; and two-car garage. Connecting these two wings, the central section – which can be visualized as the “crossbar” of the H-shaped floor plan -- contains the great hall. The great hall’s street side is the home’s main entry; the great hall’s oceanfront side opens to the länai…and the view.

All of these spaces flow seamlessly into each other. The outdoor setting flows into the home’s interior, and the great hall flows into the kitchen, dining area, lanai, and so on. “The only rooms with doors are the bedrooms,” says LAI’s Jennifer Okino. “As soon as you walk in, you see right outside so you feel like you’re outside.”

As project architect, Okino was charged with translating Long’s vision into reality in close cooperation with the builder and interior designer. She describes the Waiholo home’s architecture as kama’iana’ (local) Contemporary Hawaiian style. This is based on such elements as the slope-pitched roof; wide and shady overhangs; extensive use of natural materials in the all-hardwood trims; large wall and window openings; and judicious use of color on interior walls.

Interior design and décor was the province of Cindi White, ASID, who quickly shares credit for the home’s final look with the architects and contractor, citing plenty of enjoyable brainstorming and strong teamwork. “The overall concept,” White explains, “was to reflect a casually elegant, yet comfortable, lifestyle through open design and the selection of natural materials. These elements are accented by the free-form black pool with lava rock surround. As a result,” she says, “the entire home feels most nurturing. It’s elegant yet unpretentious, almost in spite of its prestigious setting.”

Comfortable yet elegant Island style furniture, accented with Asian antiques from the Robyn Buntin Gallery, helps create a modern – and at once, timelessly Hawaiian – feeling. Running throughout are stone floors with a brushed finish. In the great hall, a hollowed-out coconut palm trunk, approximately five feet tall, serves as an accent piece – literally bringing nature inside the home. Extensive wood trims are koa and African mahogany. Interior doors feature plantation-style wood louvers.

The master bedroom is open to sun, air, and space, thanks to pitched “volume ceilings,” large casement windows, and a set of sliding glass doors that lead to the pool. In the kitchen, mahogany cabinets are offset by a gorgeous counter, made of solid mango wood. Bathrooms feature “floating” spa-style cabinetry, also constructed from rich woods. Bathrooms accent tiles are tumble marble. Stone-carved vessel sinks appear to be freestanding bowls, set on top of the cabinets.

The original artist’s rendering of LAI’s Waiholo Street concept home is titled “Island Inspirations.” The name seems fitting for an aesthetically modest – yet sophisticated -- residence that takes its chief inspiration from the island beneath it, and the sky and sea beyond.