After nearly nine months of sweeping transformations, the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea is welcoming guests with an entirely new look. Yet anyone who visited the property during that time would be hard pressed to notice the signs of refurbishment. That’s because the resort’s management and design teams went to extraordinary lengths to continue delivering impeccable service and tropical tranquility even as they were ripping out walls and replacing virtually every hard and soft good on the premises.

Opened in 1990 as the brand’s first resort, the property had already achieved distinction as Hawai‘i's only Mobil Five Star and AAA Five Diamond Resort. A previous soft goods refurbishment was completed as recently as 2002. So why endure such an extreme makeover?

Simply put, management of the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea is determined to keep the property a “leap ahead” of its own high standards and guest expectations. According to Thomas Steinhauer, regional vice president and general manager, “Normally what you do in a resort of this caliber is update the soft goods every three or four years. You cannot wait until the product deteriorates. You have to stay ahead. In this case we looked at it comprehensively, so in addition to all the soft goods we changed out all the furniture and changed the design, the feel and even the infrastructure of the rooms. The challenge is that you are not able to shut down and start a renovation without considering all kinds of impacts on the guests.”

That challenge was further complicated by the incredible scope of the project; the first total redesign and refurbishment in the resort’s 17 years including re-theming one of the resorts three restaurants, renovating 380 rooms and suites with completely new hard and soft goods from ceiling to floor, wall-to-wall and even within the walls; a move required to upgrade the wiring for state-of-the-art electronics accommodating HDTV and other futuristic capabilities.

Resort manager Simon Pettigrew summed up the approach this way: “The most important aspect for us was trying to figure out how to do this renovation while still operating the resort. What we came up with was a ‘vertical plan’ where we would take out sections of each tower basically from the third floor through the eighth. So when we’re doing the noisy work, such as chipping channels and installing the cabling, that noise isn’t transferring to the floors below and above.”

This strategy was so effective that guests never saw signs of the intense work being done behind the scenes. That work ranged from replacing furniture, bedding, carpets and artwork to completely updating the electronics; to modernizing the in-room coffee and refreshment centers; to updating the oversized bathrooms with new lighting, fixtures, marble tile, dark wood vanities and all-glass shower enclosures. The result is pure luxury, an experience that Four Seasons guests the world over have come to expect.

Masterminding all those details was a management and design team that included high-level Four Seasons staff, professional designers, construction engineers, and a prominent local art consultant. Brayton + Hughes Design Studio of San Francisco was the project designer, chosen for their vast experience in corporate, hospitality, commercial and residential interior design. According to Pettigrew, “They’ve really done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the islands; the richness of the colors, the warmth of the fabrics, really clean lines, and so forth. It’s a very contemporary feel.”

Steinhauer added, “If you look at the design of this resort it is more a classic, palatial style. It is a U-shape design that is laid out in a terraced format starting with the formal gardens, down to the pool levels then down to the beach level leading all the way to the ocean. We kept this more classic approach of design in mind with all the open air spaces, the lounge, the lobby -- everything is open and airy in an understated elegance. I think we’ve achieved a Hawaiian feel and a sense of place with a more contemporary approach befitting the classic design of our resort.”

Working closely with the design team was Hawai‘i-based art consultant Julie Cline. When I was approached by the Four Seasons to revitalize this property,” she recounts, “I wanted to do more than just fill their wall space with pretty pictures. My first goal was to discuss the vision for the property and create a story through the visual arts that will connect Hawai‘i and their culture and community to the property.”

Cline made good use of local artisans and chose a storyline that reflected the more recent cultural history of Hawai‘i from its rise to statehood in 1959. She had previously incorporated early Hawaiian cultural history in the Four Seasons Hualälai on the Big Island, so this seemed a natural progression.

Another theme she drew upon was the colorful nature of the islands. She explained, “I wanted to bring the palette of the land and the ocean inside. That is what Hawaiians have done for hundreds of years in their lei-making, their kapas, their wood carvings, and their own traditions of quilt-making. It includes very vibrant colors from the volcanoes, the black lava, the greens of the rainforest, the aquas of the ocean and the yellows and oranges of the mangos and papayas. You see this in the palette of Hawai‘i and that can make this property as much Hawaiian as the subject matter that the artists end up using.”

While guests will no doubt recognize these new artistic flourishes, there are other aspects of the project that will remain hidden and more subtly appreciated. Chief among those improvements are the wall-busting electronics upgrades. From interior wall to interior wall, every room has been re-wired with CAT-6 cabling designed to accommodate HDTV and other technologies. Every electronic advance has been carefully planned to meet the expectations of today’s luxury traveler.