An Estate of Hawaiʻi’s Architectural Golden Age, Above Honolulu

In upper Nuʻuanu, where the valley tightens and the Koʻolau ridgeline rises almost straight from the valley floor, a setting of uncommon character exists at only a select few addresses in Hawaiʻi. Long kept in quiet reserve, it is now ready to be experienced anew.

The air is cooler. The canopy is denser. The landscape moves, streams through stone, water through terraced garden rooms, the valley itself pressing against what is built within it. It is the kind of setting that serious architects have always sought out and serious families have always held onto, and one that will soon be available for an appreciative new owner.

Lihiwai has been both, and is now prepared for its next chapter.

Commissioned in 1921 by Territorial Governor George Robert Carter and designed by Hardie Phillip of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue & Associates, the estate was conceived from its first drawing as something more than a private residence, a vision shaped with intention and restraint. Originally designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the estate was completed in 1929. 

“The building is probably the largest and finest private residence ever constructed in Hawaiʻi… and certainly is the best example of a large, Mediterranean style villa in the islands.”

– National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

It was built in shaped bluestone set in steel-reinforced concrete, with perimeter walls measuring two to three feet thick and structural end walls approaching six. At a time when most houses in Hawaiʻi were built in timber, Carter chose to build in stone not as an architectural gesture, but as a decision for permanence. He had lost a prior residence. He would not lose another.

The result is a building with the material gravity of an institution, held at the scale of a home. It stands as an enduring composition that, after more than a century of continuous inhabitation, is ready to be appreciated and carried forward.

If you would like to experience Lihiwai firsthand or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.