He visited the newly-admitted 50th state in July 1960, and was asked by Governor William F. Quinn to help develop the islands beyond Oahu for tourism.

Instead the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was hired, and architect Edward Charles Bassett designed a striking hotel structure in the modern style.

[7] The interior design was conceived by Davis Allen of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with the assistance of Margo Grant Walsh.

It included traditional textiles, carvings, metal and ceramic objects from Hawai'i, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia.

[8] Richard Joseph, Esquire's travel writer, likened the hotel to "strolling through an open-air museum and art gallery—past Hawaiian quilts hung as tapestries, bronze ceremonial drums and red-and-gold scroll boxes from Thailand, Japanese and Chinese scrolls and paintings, New Guinea carvings and masks ..."[9] Construction on the resort's golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones,[9] began first, on August 8, 1963.

[13] The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel closed due to structural damage caused by the 2006 Kiholo Bay earthquake.