Maui Surprises: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Marilyn Monroe House

You too may have seen Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in Spring Green or Chicago, but did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright also designed a house for Marilyn Monroe–and that it is on Maui?

Painting of Frank Lloyd Wright in The King Kamehameha Golf Club in Waikapu, Maui

Although Marilyn Monroe never had the house built, the plans were used to create the clubhouse for what is now The Kamehameha Golf Club.

The King Kamehameha Golf Club*

On the roof of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design for Marilyn Monroe*

Rounded corners, rounded windows *

Landscaping and statues contribute to the design*

Even in the spa – shapes are important in a Frank Lloyd Wright design*

That’s me — reflected in a mirror in the men’s spa (my one chance).*

The men’s spa is much bigger than the women’s because, they say, more men are members.

Photo of Marilyn Monroe  hanging in The King Kamehameha Golf Club women’s spa. *

Frank Lloyd Wright windows*

From a private dining room looking out a Frank Lloyd Wright window.*

Window reflections*

According to an article by Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi in a Special to the Star-Bulletin, “If circumstances had been different, the imposing rose-colored structure that stands in Waikapu, in the foothills of the West Maui Mountains, would have wound up as a vacation home for Marilyn Monroe and her playwright-husband Arthur Miller — instead of the clubhouse that’s the centerpiece of The King Kamehameha Golf Club.

In 1957, the jet-setting couple asked renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design an escape for them near rustic Roxbury, Connecticut . . .  [that included], among other features, a cinema with a film vault, a nursery and a swimming pool with a gentle slope leading to a running brook.

When the couple’s marriage dissolved in 1958, however, so did their dream of building the 10,000- to 14,000-square-foot country estate. Wright died the following year, and for the next 30 years, the blueprints were tucked away in the archives of Taliesin West, an architectural firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., that grew from Wright’s practice.

In 1988, Wright’s design was reborn after Hawaii entrepreneurs Howard Hamamoto and Masaru “Pundy” Yokouchi and their Tokyo business partner, Takeshi Sekiguchi, visited Taliesin West.”  (from <http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/07/03/features/story01.html&gt;.

Beautiful glass, beautiful details*

Stained-glass ceiling light*

Another Frank Lloyd Wright stained-glass ceiling light*

“The Marilyn Monroe House” *

Come to Maui; you’ll discover other surprises.  

Aloha, Renée

* photos by me