what we do
At Urbano
Rentals we
feature town homes in Merida and country
estates nearby for vacation rentals. Our
properties have the highest standards of
design and comfort.. We were named the 'go
to' people in Merida by TRAVEL+LEISURE
magazine.
Our first design project upon arriving in Merida
from New York was to collaborate with Salvadore
Reyes Rios and Josephina Larrain on a home
in the Colonial town of Izamal. This home and
studio for the owners of the Hacienda San Jose
Cholul also serves as an artist in residence
retreat & gallery. We designed and renovated
The Orangerie
at Santa Ana as a part time residence
for a couple from Connecticut. The
Orangerie is
in the heart of the neighborhood most popular
with the ex-pat community. The 17c house at
L'Ermita de Santa
Isabel was
our home until the summer of 2007. It is situated
in the oldest neighborhood of Merida that has
suddenly become a fashionable area. We now
live in El Portico
de la Candelaria. In 2007
we added two properties designed by Reyes-Rios
and Larrain to our rentals, the Villa
Santa Ana and the Hacienda
Sac Chich. All
of our houses are in Merida's historic center
and our haciendas are within an hour's drive
of Merida.
Our hope is that our guests
feel more at home in the Yucatan and less like
tourists. We
advise you where to shop and where to eat and
more importantly what to avoid. who are
we
Josh Ramos and John Powell
came to Merida in October
2001 from New York where we had a design firm
and shop called Naturemorte. Our Soho store
was on Broome Street and featured antiques
from France and Mexico mixed with designer
home furnishings from the Spain. Josh was a
textile designer who specialized in home furnishings.
He was raised in San Diego and graduated from
the Art Institute of Chicago. He attended the
Art Institute Study Abroad program in San Miguel
de Allende. Josh has a fine arts degree but
his passion is design. John was raised in Texas
and studied art and architecture. John worked
in art galleries in Houston and New York before
moving to Paris. In Paris John worked as a
designer for firms like Hermes, Christian Lacroix
Couture & Sonia Rykiel. In 1998 John took
a year off to study film at New York University.
In New York John met Josh and they started
making trips throughout Mexico. Both avid collectors
of crafts and antiques they soon could not
contain their collections and decided to open
Naturemorte. On one such trip Josh and John
bought the house in L'Ermita. We both hope
to one day soon get back to being artists. the
future
There was always a
plan to come to Merida first and then build
a Utopian center in the nearby jungle where
we could be creative. At
first it was to be a hacienda near Merida,
then it was a ranch with a cenote near Valladolid
and then it was to be a modern house in a
citrus orchard in the Ruta Puuc. They
have all fallen through at the last minute.
In the past couple of years we have renovated
10 houses in Merida. We know for a fact that
we don't want to do that for anyone under
any circumstances ever again. But we will
most likely be renovating a couple of houses
a year for ourselves and still running out
to the countryside when we hear about that
abandoned henequen field or colonial ruin
in the middle of no where...
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