For my birthday, Rick and I toured Shangri La. Rather, I should say ON my birthday because I celebrate for the entire month of October so this was just the kick-off event. I had read about the house while we were still on the mainland. It is in Honolulu and tours are arranged through the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The house was built by Doris Duke who was a fabulously wealthy woman for her entire life. She inherited a fortune from her father who died when she was 12. She lived very well and left an estate worth much more than she inherited. She owned several homes but this one in Hawaii is the only one she built. It houses her collection of Islamic art and architecture. When she died, it was opened to tours.
The front of the house is plain but inside is fabulous. Of course, they don't allow photos inside but there is a really good online tour at the website I have linked on the side of this blog. I'm just going to put in a couple of pictures I took for fun. It was OK to take pictures in the back yard and on the patio/deck/lanai.
Our guide was a lot of fun. He knew a lot about Duke and her life in Hawaii, the construction of the house as well as the Islamic art inside. (That's not the guide in the picture, that's Rick.) He had a contest to see who could recognize a particular pattern and I won so I got the first drink of water on our break. Wa-hoo!
The wall of windows is on an elevator machinery that allows them to be lifted or lowered (in different rooms) to open the room up to the back yard.
There are also wood screens that provide some privacy but allow the wind through. And there are draperies to cover completely -- three options for dividing the inside rooms from the outside room.
There's even an outside couch.
To provide a foundation for the property, Duke dynamited the area and built it up. Probably would never pass an environmental impact test these days but she started it in 1935. It was a remote picnic location then. Now, it's part of an upscale Honolulu neighborhood near Diamond Head. Jim Nabors lives next door (Gomer Pyle).
