T
o interior designer and architectural conservator,
Xorin Balbes, there was something magical about
the derelict property on the foothills of Maui’s Mt
Haleakala.
The land was special – he had felt its energy, but he’d
also seen the dry rot that now invaded the buckled
timber buildings that, a decade earlier, had housed
pineapple pickers. So Xorin knew the onerous task
he faced, but believed it was important to restore
the unique 1909 authentic Craftsman style property
with its “neo-classical and vernacular Japanese details”.
So today, when you first round the corner of the
driveway and take in the fully restored Baldwin
house, this is clearly something far removed from the
five-star Maui hotel marques that cling to the west
Maui shore.
Fortune would smile on this haole (outsider) from
California as he contemplated buying the property,
when into his driveway, and into his life, drove a
woman who introduced herself as “Aunty Fran”. She
would turn out to be respected Hawaiian Hope
Kahu (priest) and architect, Dr (Rev.) Fran Palama, a
specialist in architecture for restoration and very well
connected at Maui County, who controlled planning
and ultimately, Xorin’s fate.
When they first met, Aunty Fran took Xorin to the
entrance of the main building to share a spiritual experience she encountered just days before. Pointing
to the staircase up to a second storey suite, she said:
“There was a young man’s spirit that was up there…
he’s been the guardian here…he was also a son of
Henry Baldwin”. The son of pioneer missionaries sent
to Hawaii in 1831, Henry co-founded Alexander &
Baldwin Inc., one of Hawaii’s five oligarchies that ran
the local sugar and pineapple industry. Henry’s son,
Frank, had died of appendicitis aged 25 and the
house bore his name in memorium.
So this was a Baldwin house – a name closely
associated with the first missionaries, who married
into Hawaii’s royal families and into power. So the
County would not permit just anyone to restore it.
But as she drove away Aunty Fran told Xorin, “If you
meet anyone at the County let them know that you
met Aunty Fran and everything will be taken care of”.
The next day, back in Los Angeles, where he was
living in the Hollywood Hills in his latest historic
restoration – a 1926 design by Frank Lloyd Wright
Jnr in the form of a Mayan temple – Xorin got on
the phone. “I started calling all the people I had met
with at the County and I also shared with them that
I had met Aunty Fran and they all could not believe
that I had met her. They were, like, ‘how can you be
here for a few days and meet Aunty Fran?’ And so it
was the connection with Aunty Fran that allowed my
permitting process to happen in 25 per cent of the
time it should have happened for most people.”
The County need not have worried. Xorin had
undertaken significant and expensive historic
restorations in Los Angeles, apart from the Frank
Lloyd Wright Jnr house, which featured in the film
‘Aviator’. These included a replica 17th century
Italian villa once owned by 1920s movie legend,
Norma Talmadge (and later by Jimi Hendrix), plus
an award-winning restoration of the 1929 art deco
Security-First National Bank in Los Angeles.
But for Xorin, the Baldwin property was quite a
different challenge.
“There was a part of me that felt like my developer
experience my designer experience and my spiritual
path could all come together in this one place. One
of the things I believe is that the intention that goes
into the restoration of a project is as important as the
work that is going into it. So, for me, the intention for
the restoration of this building and this land was really about honouring the culture and the history – this
historic property, the land itself and the culture that
the property is connected to,” he explained.
Lumeria exterior
After $8 million and two years, with the strong
support of Aunty Fran at County hearings, an army
of tradespeople complete the physical transformation. Now Lumeria Maui specialises in personal
transformation. The land is known as Manu Ola ( the
healing mount), “…and so in restoring it from a place
of hoping and energy…the [guests’] transformation
and their restoration will be easier if the intention of
every nail and every particle of the renovation was
about honouring the restoration and transformation
for people to go through,” Xorin explains.
What were once old dormitories have been transformed within the original footprint into 24 elegant
suites set around a central landscape of gardens,
lawn terraces, conversation nooks and corners for
quiet contemplation, surrounded by lanais that
afford panoramic views both makai (to the sea)
and mauka (to the mountains). The view across
the island at sunset, when the fiery orb bows down
behind the Iao Valley, the secret burial place of ali’i
(chiefs), is spectacular to behold.
In ancient times this land was Ahupua‘a (land
division), an equitable system in which the land was
divided like a slice of pie running head to tail – from
the mauka to the makai – and it was the responsibility of the community that inhabited the Ahupua‘a
to protect the land and the water resources. There
were forresters, farmers and fishermen sharing
self-sufficiency.
And so it is that Xorin and his team practice malama
‘aina (care of the land) from a flourishing vegetable
and herb garden that not only provides sustenance
for guests but is part of a weekly education program.
He explained that in Hawaiian culture people are not
separate from the land – and to honour the culture
he has planted one of every native Hawaiian plant
on the property.
“Hawaiians knew that the energy that is here was
very restorative and very healing, so it is perfect that
Lumeria in its mission for restoration and transformation and healing is here.”
Guests at the 24-room ‘edventure’ (education and
adventure) retreat will find an authentic experience.
No television or radio, but a very cosy individually designed room with furnishings sought from
around the world. Then there’s the private lanai,
pool lounge, or a hammock in the whispering pine
forest, to enable guests to choose their own p