Construction ran from 1936 to 1938, designed by architect Marion Sims Wyeth as a one-story residence that merged modernist lines with Islamic design traditions. Duke was not a passive client. She collaborated directly with artisans, integrating indoor and outdoor spaces through courtyards, pavilions, and oceanfront terraces. The materials came from across the Islamic world: tilework from Iran, painted wooden interiors from Syria, pierced metalwork from India, vibrant textiles from Spain. One of the most significant pieces is a mihrab from Kashan, Iran, a prayer niche considered the best preserved of only six surviving examples of its kind. Duke continued redesigning Shangri La throughout her life, reconfiguring rooms into tent-like interiors inspired by Islamic models and adding a Playhouse modeled on the seventeenth-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan.

The outdoor spaces at Shangri La reflect Duke's vision of Islamic art experienced within a living landscape rather than behind museum walls. A formal Mughal garden draws on the design of the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, with terraced water features channeling the eye toward the ocean. Tropical plantings surround a Hawaiian fishpond, and a waterfall cascades through gardens where the geometry of Persian landscaping meets the lushness of Oahu's windward vegetation. The Pacific provides the backdrop that no gallery could replicate. Duke understood that Islamic garden design was itself an art form, one built around water, symmetry, and the idea of paradise made tangible on earth.

Scholars have examined Shangri La with a critical eye. Academic analysis has noted that tours tend to emphasize Duke's biography over the historical and cultural contexts of the art on display, and that many visitors come primarily for the association with wealth and celebrity rather than the art itself. The placement of religious architectural elements in a private home raises questions about how Islamic art is received and interpreted in Western collections. Duke's mihrab, for example, was not displayed publicly for decades, effectively stripping it of the religious function that once oriented a community of worshippers toward Mecca. Yet Muslim community leaders from the Muslim Association of Hawaii have viewed the museum as a site with genuine potential for fostering public understanding of Islamic art and culture.

The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art operates Shangri La today, fulfilling Duke's wish that the estate be open to students, scholars, and anyone interested in Islamic art. Tours depart from the Honolulu Museum of Art and travel by shuttle to the estate, a restriction imposed by the conditional use permit that protects the surrounding residential neighborhood. The museum hosts two visual artists per year for residencies and exhibitions, and offers year-round programs including lectures, workshops, and performances. The collection's strengths lie in ceramics, wood, glass, and textiles dating from 1600 to 1940 CE, along with a pair of shaped carpets made for a Mughal emperor. For those who cannot visit, a virtual tour offers a view of the architecture and ocean setting. Shangri La remains a singular place: Islamic art set against Hawaiian landscape, a private vision made public, and a collection that continues to provoke conversation about who gets to own, display, and interpret the art of other cultures.