Step Into The Artistic Glamor of Gardiner House

Celebrated early 20th–century American painter Howard Gardiner Cushing died at just 47. But, over a century later, his influence lives on at Gardiner House, a luxury harbor-front hotel opening April 1 in Newport, Rhode Island, where the artist had a residence and studio. It’s the vision of his great-grandson, Howard Cushing, and Wirt Blaffer, who collaborated with local architecture firm Herk Works and Brooklyn, New York, design studio Space Exploration on the five-year, ground-up project that’s residential in scale and spirit. The centerpiece of the 21-room property is the entrance hall, a double-height space floored in black-and-white limestone and marble tile, centered on a grand spiral stair, and wrapped by wallpaper that recreates a lush landscape mural painted by Cushing the senior in 1905 at the Ledges, his nearby family home. Right off the lobby is Studio Bar, its rich green walls hung salon-style with dozens of paintings, satirical cartoons, and original signed prints by the likes of Slim Aarons, H.M. Bateman, and Brandon Best, an eclectic mix curated by Cushing the junior.