You Can Live Out Your Farmer Fantasies At This Luxe New Resort
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Back in high school history class, it was easy to scoff at Hameau de la Reine, Marie Antoinette's pretend village where she could escape Paris to frolic with farm animals and host elaborate picnics. As a weary city dweller today, few things sound more appealing than a country retreat with luxurious trimmings.
Wildflower Farms is a refined respite for New Yorkers, sitting on 140 acres in the Hudson Valley just along the Shawangunk Ridge. A little over an hour's drive from New York City, it balances sprawling meadows lined with maple trees, a working farm, and three miles of hiking trails with fine dining and amenities.
Nestling a five-star resort into this peaceful landscape was no small feat. Electric Bowery, a female-founded and led architecture firm in Venice, California, was brought on early in the project, which was initially conceived of as a glamping concept. Design principals and architects Lucia Bartholomew and Cayley Lambur spent a lot of time on the site, pondering how to bring their indoor-outdoor California vibe to a place with a solid four seasons. "It all came back to the connection to the land," Bartholomew says. "Sustainability was a major consideration, but also how to get people to interact with the landscape, from the farm-to-table aspect of the restaurant to the surrounding trails."
Guests are tucked into a series of cabins throughout the meadow, each carefully sited to offer private views and outfitted with plush beds and oversize soaking tubs (or, in some rooms, personal hot tubs) by interior design firm Ward + Gray. Thanks to the careful consideration of the cabins in the topography, it almost immediately feels as if one is alone in nature.
Socialization is just a few steps away, however, where a sweeping portico framing the ridge boasts an oversize firepit—and an impressive cocktail list. The Great Porch is not only social media worthy, it's pure architectural grace with beams. "We took the Hudson Valley typology and made it more minimal, more Scandinavian," says Lambur. "The Great Porch is this moment where you feel like you've arrived. It connects the restaurant, Clay, and the main building [containing the lobby and the spa, Thistle]." In the summer, the porch ushers in refreshing breezes and in the winter, guests cozy up to the fire (as someone who arrived on a blustery, rainy April morning, I can attest it rarely has a bad day).
The entire property compels people to return in different seasons, to use the architectural moments as a way to interact with the landscape differently. "We like to focus on how residential blends with hospitality," says Lambur. "And ultimately we want to design places that we also would want to return to again and again."
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