They’re of such high quality that Chris Curtis, who was Alex and Joan’s landscape architect, stops by occasionally to purchase some for jobs he’s working on. “We designed the landscape so you can drive a truck onto the lawn and park near the tree you need to dig up,” Alex explains.
“So we knew going in what it means to take on something this big.” He now grows and sells tropical trees, most of them located on the lower portion of the property: upwards of sixty plumerias of various varieties and colors, fif ty coconut palms, thirty foxtail palms, several rare white tacoma trees, and numerous fruit trees. “When we lived on the East Coast, we had a fully landscaped, three-acre property,” says Alex. The home sits on agricultural land, zoning that required submitting a farm-plan application to Maui County’s Planning Department. “This matting is like wallpaper, but soft and thicker.” “I looked everywhere, but had difficulty finding just what I was looking for,” he says. Throughout the main living areas, bamboo-weave matting lines those ceilings Alex sourced it in, of all places, Brooklyn, New York. The home’s steep, double-pitched roofline allowed for vaulted ceilings and open crossbeams. “Every element is personal, and refined to the users’ particular needs.” “Alex and Joan’s house is what I call a jewelry-box project,” Eddie says. With input from Randy, Eddie even designed and built the master bed frame and a chest at its foot that conceals a pop-up TV. A platform of sleek African mahogany cradles the master bathtub, mirroring the cabinetry and sinks opposite. In the master suite, Eddie created an elegant dressing area, using richly hued African wenge wood. “They asked me to take those ideas and make them even better. The couple showed him photos of woodwork treatments they liked, Eddie says. Above it hangs a classic two-tiered silk Fortuny chandelier from Venice, Italy. The shape of the house was always the same, but the finishes got more sophisticated.” Mere steps from the kitchen is the open, airy dining room whose custom table is curly koa. When Eddie got involved, the design moved to a higher level. Especially once Eddie Takayesu joined the project. “But as we moved forward, it got nicer and nicer. “When we began, it was going to be a casual beach house,” says Randy. Alex refers to the different sections as the “master suite,” the “main house,” and the “other side.” “It had three detached buildings with steep, double-pitched roofs.” Adapting that concept for Alex and Joan’s home, she designing a house whose three sections form a semicircle connected by hallways. “I’d just returned from a surf vacation in Fiji, where I’d seen a house I fell in love with,” Randy recalls. The realtor who had helped them purchase the lot recommended architect Randy Wagner.
We’re patient people, and we wanted to personalize our home.” “We interviewed several architects and builders, but didn’t feel any of them would be willing to invest the time required to incorporate the features we wanted in the house. “It was 2004, and there was a lot of building going on,” he says. “All five acres required extensive grading before we could break ground.” And finding an architect and builder wasn’t simple, either. “When we purchased the property, it was a big, scrubby lot,” says Alex. “Seeing the whales felt like a sign that this was the place for us,” says Alex.īut six years passed before they and their two children moved in. When the couple we’ll call Alex and Joan first stood on the vacant lot above Lahaina that would eventually become their new home, they spotted humpback whales breaching in the sparkling sapphire ocean below. Story by Heidi Pool | Photography by Travis Rowen
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