Step Inside GITANO Founder’s Elegantly Restored 18th-Century Stone House in the Catskills
Entrepreneur James Gardner and artist Andrew Cramer have employed an unorthodox approach for their global (and glam) property portfolio
Leave it to British-born restaurateur, entrepreneur, and self-taught interior designer James Gardner to spend most of his adult life dreaming of a historic estate in the English countryside only to discover and purchase one in the Catskills. The 18th-century 6,000-square-foot-plus, three-story, six-bedroom manor, which Gardner and his longtime artist partner Andrew Cramer call Witbeck House, is situated among seven lush acres-surrounded by hundreds of acres of hay fields, woodlands, and views of the Catskills mountains-near the Hudson River. The property also boasts a 3,000-square-foot barn featuring a loft suite for guests just off the main house. “We think about understated elegance and celebrating perfection in imperfection. I absolutely love unexpected juxtapositions,” Gardner explains of his and Cramer’s design philosophy. “We like our design to feel comfortable and effortless while also visually stunning.” Like Kate Moss in a glamorous set of pajamas, according to Gardner, who spends the warmer months between a loft in Manhattan’s Soho and the Catskills and his winters in Tulum Beach and Miami Beach.
Perhaps unironically, the pair have landed on a style that is both specific enough to represent them but not so distinct that it can’t adapt to the local culture, heritage, and climates in which their properties reside. For instance, Gardner’s first mezcal bar and kitchen in Tulum, GITANO, made its debut in 2013 with an enormous gleaming disco ball that floats amidst the collection of towering palm trees and a pink neon sign set against the Yucatán jungle. Not to mention, there’s a genuine intimacy that lends itself to both the cozy atmosphere and the quietly luxurious interiors. Unlike so many beachfront restaurants and lounges, GITANO-especially the one in Tulum Beach-isn’t fussy or pretentious; it’s a watering hole for anyone who’d rather nosh on grilled octopus and guacamole beneath the shifting sparkles of a disco ball than under a traditional roof.
The supremely glamorous GITANO has since swept across the Western Hemisphere with outposts in New York City and Miami Beach. Gardner notes, “GITANO is Spanish for gypsy, which captures the essence of who we are: free spirits, wanderers, wonderers, diverse, eclectic, conscious, and creative.” And the two have managed to let that gypsy-inspired mindset guide their design ethos for all of their projects, including five residences and five GITANOs, whose design is reminiscent of the white sand beaches of Tulum. “I always wished that there was a place where we could get dressed up and go out for dinner that captured the spirit of Tulum: a place to see and be seen, which we all love when we’re on vacation,” Gardner explains. “GITANO was the hole that we were able to fill.”
It’s almost as if Gardner designed each of the GITANOs with the intention of completely shaking up the local landscape. In Manhattan, for instance, GITANO’s main entrance is flanked by 30-foot-tall palm trees. Like Gardner himself, whose traditional uniform is a black ensemble with a string of pearls around his neck, his design choices are as charismatic as they are bold. After all, who else would decorate downtown New York with towering palms? GITANO transports its visitors to another place, which, of course, was Gardner’s intention.
In fact, Gardner always has an intention when it comes to his design-no matter where he is. In his New York loft on Grand Street, his intention was simple: pare it back. He explains, “Our first phase of any redesign is always what we call a ‘make-under,’” which typically consists of taking everything out save for a few original details that tend to add a sense of history and character, and making it white and minimal. The freshly all-white empty space gives the pair a sort of canvas that they use to create something beautiful.
“This was a former artist loft, so there were lots of details there to preserve, but it was also a total mess, so starting fresh was absolutely necessary,” Gardner adds. And in the main space-an elongated, wall-less room that comprises the kitchen, living area, and dining room, the couple made a statement with a 57-by-67-inch piece from Cramer’s solo exhibition at the 2009 Art Basel in Miami. “We wanted a more industrial feel in the city,” Gardner adds. And the large-scale oil on canvas depiction of society’s glamorization of guns and violence worked perfectly.
Along more than 300 feet of the shoreline in Tulum, Gardner took a slightly different approach in his and Cramer’s oceanfront palapa they’re currently renovating. They’ve taken the space while they construct their new home-just two plots over-a historically protected structure on stilts. Despite it being temporary, Gardner gave the home a bit of a makeover, emptying it out and completely redoing the inside. “There’s a nice juxtaposition between the palapa in Tulum and the estate in the Catskills. The design is completely different, but we are away from everything and everyone in both places,” Gardner suggests. There are hardly any similarities between the two homes-especially their interiors-but one element they both share is the idea of a highly private paradise that’s completely surrounded by nature.
Of course, in Tulum, the nature takes form in lush jungle and azure-hued rolling waves and in the Catskills, it’s acres-long pastures and rugged mountains, but it doesn’t make a difference to Gardner, who, for all of his galavanting and jet-setting, goes out of his way to make a peaceful and quiet home for himself. “The Catskills side of the Hudson River is more rural, open, farmland and still has an undiscovered feel to it-like a completely different world. And it’s just two-and-a-half hours from New York City,” Gardner chuckles.
That undiscovered element is something he and Cramer immediately cherished about Witbeck House. In fact, keeping those elegant and impossible-to-reproduce details-the narrow winding staircase in the foyer, the subtly ornate crown moldings that decorate the high ceilings, and pine wide plank floors in each of the sprawling rooms-was nonnegotiable. “We decided that the first phase of renovations would be a sort of ‘make-under:’ paring back, simplifying, and restoring the home to its original beauty,” Gardner says. But, as with any 21st-century renovations, some spaces required a bit more modernization than others-especially the kitchen, where Gardner spends most of his time preparing intricate delicacies. For this especially challenging overhaul, he turned to general contractor Brad Rappleyea.
Another area that underwent a massive overhaul was the pool, which was unsightly in more ways than one: It was an odd shape, in a strange place, and comprised quite a bit of steel and vinyl. Gardner says through a laugh, “When we heard the news that Architectural Digest wanted to feature the house, we managed to make miracles happen and fast-tracked the pool project with a unique and creative approach.”
That creative approach was also a bit risky: They constructed an entirely concrete, Brutalist-inspired 50-by-15-by-8-foot pool with Keyser Concrete in just 8 weeks. Plus, the pool itself is quite spectacular, as it’s surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland whose deep shades shift between rich aubergines and crimsons in the fall and deep greens in the summer. “And let us not forget our friend Cupid, the bronze sculpture who watches over us at the far end of the pool,” Gardner suggests.
Gardner and Cramer may spend their time in many of the world’s most stylish enclaves, but Witbeck House is, at least for Gardner, quite a dream come true. “Having grown up in the English countryside, I have always wanted a stone house here in the U.S., but houses of this scale are quite rare.” But eight years ago, Cramer found it, the pair visited it, and only a short while later, signed the deed.
Originally published at https://www.architecturaldigest.com on January 6, 2022.
