The Cactus Apartment Above Midtown

The Cactus Apartment Above Midtown A couple have cultivated a private garden in their loft overlooking Madison Square Garden. By , Curbed and New York Magazine’s design editor who covers the city’s most spectacular interiors. The Living Room The first cactus Bill Farmer and Stewart Rahtz brought home was found on the side of the street. The custom shelves and cabinet are by Brian Cullen. The Nymphenburg porcelain birds and animals are from Ted Muehling. The landscape by Farmer is above a piano that belonged to his mother, Rosemary. The club chairs are from Restoration Hardware. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Living Room The first cactus Bill Farmer and Stewart Rahtz brought home was found on the side of the street. The custom shelves and cabinet are by Brian Cullen. The Nymphenburg porcelain birds and animals are from Ted Muehling. The landscape by Farmer is above a piano that belonged to his mother, Rosemary. The club chairs are from Restoration Hardware. Photo: Kelly Marshall Right across the street from Madison Square Garden, there is a secret garden. It’s 13 stories aboveground inside a former fur atelier that is now a 2,000-square-foot loft overlooking the arena and most of midtown. The front door opens to a wall of giant spindly cacti masking large south-facing windows. “They were meant to provide shade without having to bother with curtains, which we found never worked,” says Stewart Rahtz, a retired modeling-business executive who has shared the home with his partner, the artist Bill Farmer, for nearly 50 years. The first six-inch starter plant they brought in now reaches the ceiling. “They just grow and grow and grow,” Farmer says. The couple rented the apartment in 1980 after Farmer saw a listing in the Village Voice. At the time, all but one of the furriers in the 1927 building had been replaced by music studios and the neighborhood was rough. “A lot of drugs, prostitution, and the Guardian Angels on patrol,” Farmer recalls. Securing the lease would cost him all the money he had, and he was nervous about committing. “The previous tenant was so shady,” Farmer says. “Remember the TV ads for Jacoby & Meyers? They used to promote free consultations, so I went and the lawyer told me, ‘Do it. In 20 years, you will be the envy of every friend you have.’” Farmer and Rahtz cleaned out the space and took sledgehammers to the walls, including a vault that was refrigerated to store pelts. Some of the furniture is from Farmer’s family in Kansas, where his father was an oil wildcatter; other hand-me-downs were sent by Rahtz’s relatives, including his maternal grandfather, who was a vaudevillian who started his own movie company in Astoria in the 1910s. When Rahtz still worked in fashion, they entertained often, usually during the summer, when they could spill out onto the terrace. “For a while, we were known for these parties,” he says. “We’d fill the tub with vodka and Champagne and have more than 100 people over.” These days, the gatherings have moved up to their place in Woodstock. When they’re not in the city to catch up on the theater, the couple travels widely, picking up Venetian, Sri Lankan, and Burmese masks and objects along the way that they use to decorate the loft. The cacti, for the most part, take care of themselves. “They get watered twice a year. That’s it,” Farmer says. “They bloom for one evening, and the scent is so fragrant it lasts until the sun comes up.” The Entryway “David Friday did the murals throughout the apartment,” says Farmer, who painted the nude above the dresser. “He just stayed here one time when we were on vacation, and we came back to this.” The antique bed frame was shipped from Portugal. Farmer’s mother made the quilt. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Kitchen The tub is a leftover from a shoot by the photographer who lived across the hall. Elevated for drainage, it’s mainly used to cool liquor during parties, though occasionally it has served its original purpose. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Bathroom Farmer and Rahtz embellished another Friday mural with masks and objects from their travels. The elephant is from Sri Lanka, the dragon from Bali. The sink is from Home Depot. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Portrait A family photograph inspired the painting, where Farmer is depicted wearing the red sweater. The hanging lamp is from ABC Carpet & Home. The puppet is from Myanmar. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Seating Area The 1960s swivel armchairs, originally upholstered in green vinyl, are from Farmer’s family house in Kansas. The doll figure, “Chloe,” is by Dustin Poché, the late visual director of the boutique Jeffrey. The dresser is from Restoration Hardware. The painting by Farmer depicts his father’s basketball team in Missouri. “I wanted it to look like an old tinted photograph,” he says. Photo: Kelly Marshall “Chloe” “Our family probably has five of them,” Farmer says of Poché’s dolls. “He made everything: the bags, the shoes, clothes, and even the ceramic faces. He also did portrait dolls with samples of people’s real clothes, so you’d have a portrait of your mother or father.” Photo: Kelly Marshall The Main Bedroom The mermaid headboard was also created by Friday, who strung the fish-string lights too. The dresser was Rahtz’s father’s. Photo: Kelly Marshall The Terrace The outdoor garden was recently replanted earlier this year after city workers had to bring the side of the building up to code. It includes a tricolored willow tree, a red maple tree, and a variety of annual flowers. The chairs are from Pottery Barn. Rahtz is on the left, and Farmer is on the right with their pug, Doyle. Photo: Kelly Marshall Don’t Mind the Rug, Kids This Old, Very Old, Hamptons House Wake Up and Smell the Pine Trees See All The Cactus Apartment Above Midtown Your product is saved! You’ll receive emails when your saved products go on sale. Manage preferences.