Why did a motel run by hippies become the standard-bearer for boutique design hotels?
In an age when everything is about lifestyle, a hotel offers more than just a room and a good night's sleep - it should be a provider of endless fun and fresh ideas. Unlike the star-rated chain hotels we all know so well, today we're talking aboutthe boutique design hotel Ace Hotel, which not only has endlessly inspired design and top-notch service, but also hides inexhaustible lifestyle inspiration.
After sweeping every lifestyle magazine and website with its Seattle, Portland, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, London, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Chicago locations, ACE HOTEL set its sights on Kyoto, Japan for its tenth property, with the renowned architect Kengo Kuma handling the design.
A while back, Ace Hotel Kyoto's official Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all published this "Letter from Kyoto" simultaneously
If judged on scale alone, ACE HOTEL, which started in Seattle in 1999, could only be considered a "teenager" among hotels. Yet this "youth" has over 150,000 followers on Instagram thanks to its good looks and cool attitude; the famous Monocle magazine has mentioned its name dozens of times without tiring; and The New York Times named it the most original hotel in all of America...
The person who created all this was the soul of ACE HOTEL, the late founder Alex Calderwood.
Alex Calderwood
Alex Calderwood, who once sold records and ran a vintage barbershop, was a hippie during his life. A regular at nightclubs and cool street-corner bars, his mind was forever glowing with creativity. Back then, his definition of ACE HOTEL was
“
hippie and romantic,
never dividing guests by money,
but by taste.
”
Today's ACE HOTEL is not just a place to stay, but a public hub for sharing cocktails, coffee, art and music performances, and a medium between the city and its creative crowd.
In late 2013, 47-year-old Alex Calderwood passed away at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch, London, from a drug overdose and alcohol poisoning. The ACE HOTEL legend he started did not end there; instead, his spirit carried on with several popular new properties opening in succession. Now the Kyoto branch is on its way to Asia, and we'd like to take this chance to explore with you just what magic lies behind this hotel that all creatives, editors, artists and lifestyle media flock to.
Transforming iconic old buildings
In 1999, when Alex Calderwood and two friends turned a homeless shelter in Seattle into a community budget hotel charging just 50 dollars a night, the story of ACE HOTEL's "old-building renovation" began.
Seattle
The original site of ACE HOTEL's first Seattle property before renovation
Over nearly 20 years, every ACE HOTEL has been converted from a historic old building.
ACE's specialty is the game of "old elements, new combinations" - organically blending the historical feel of an old building and local customs with contemporary industrial design.
ACE HOTEL Seattle as it looks today
Los Angeles
Unlike drastic, total-makeover renovations, ACE HOTEL often deliberately preserves the structural characteristics and style of the original building when converting old properties, then applies just the right amount of "embellishment" on top of that.
In Los Angeles, ACE restored and converted the Broadway "United Artists Theatre," built in 1927.
The cathedral-like United Artists Theatre and office building
After renovation, ACE HOTEL fully preserved the ornate details of the past and became a new-style building that bears witness to authentic Broadway style.
The romantic pool area, where DJ parties and yoga classes are held from time to time
The legendary United Artists Theatre inside the building has 1,600 seats, with decor inspired by Spanish Gothic palaces and churches. It once drew silent-film moguls like Chaplin, but for a long time afterward struggled with operational difficulties. After ACE took over the renovation, it was given new life once again.
United Artists Theatre
After ACE's renovation, the theatre is simply called The Theatre at Ace, staging art, film, dance and other cultural programs on an irregular schedule.
The Theatre at Ace after renovation
The church-style interior is full of exotic flavor
Chicago
In 2017, ACE HOTEL Chicago opened in the history-rich West Loop area, in an industrial-style brick-and-glass building that originally belonged to the Fulton Market cheese company.
ACE HOTEL Chicago, which preserved the cheese company's vintage facade
After the German Bauhaus school moved to the United States, it founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago, so the design starting point of ACE HOTEL Chicago was "a tribute to the city's Bauhaus architectural history."
Modern Bauhaus-style furniture design is the signature feature of this property
In addition, every guest room features unique artworks made by students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as a series of works from Chicago's Volume Gallery, blending all the local architectural and artistic characteristics into one.
Surface-polished steel furniture and floor tiles both echo the Bauhaus spirit
Kyoto
The Kyoto property, set to open in 2019, is being converted by master architect Kengo Kuma from the old Central Telephone Office of Kyoto.
He hopes that in the future this will be not only a hotel with Kyoto characteristics, but also a new cultural center for all of Kyoto.
The former site of the Kyoto Central Telephone Office before renovation
Around the former Central Telephone Office site are many long-established Kyoto shops; venerable names such as the Japanese confectionery stores Kamesuehiro and Shoyeido, and the fan shop Miyawaki Baian, are all located here. In the overall design plan, ACE HOTEL is only one part; ACE headquarters also plans to add a new building beside the courtyard, opening up a commercial space for the surrounding traditional old shops.
Now ACE HOTEL Kyoto has released architectural renderings; Kengo Kuma has transformed the former Kyoto Central Telephone Office, "Shinpukan," into a courtyard surrounding a single-story house.
The soon-to-open ACE HOTEL Kyoto is likewise a fusion of old and new
When it opens in 2019, the basement of this ACE HOTEL will also connect to the Karasuma Oike subway station. With convenient transport and the appeal of local culture, this is sure to become the top choice of accommodation in the minds of stylish travelers.
A dazzling anti-standardized design
Alex Calderwood once said: "Every ACE HOTEL must blend into the local culture, rather than dropping in as a foreign, out-of-place new hotel."
His principle led ACE HOTEL to redefine the concept of the "design hotel" - since opening in Seattle in 1999, they have abandoned uniform "branding" in favor of differentiated design in which every property and every room is different.
Portland
The "HOTEL" sign at ACE HOTEL Portland stands out prominently beside the wooden wall
Stepping into ACE HOTEL Portland is like stepping into an old movie. All the seemingly casual light-industrial-style decor is the best interpretation of "easy chic."
The old leather sofas and graffiti artworks attract not only travelers from around the world, but also Portland's own artistic young people, who come here to socialize and drink coffee.
New Orleans
ACE HOTEL in the New Orleans Warehouse District
ACE HOTEL New Orleans converted an old furniture store. The entire hotel's design is inspired by the building's own Art Deco style, with all 234 guest rooms featuring custom art pieces and furniture, while the pairing of gray and blue as the main colors creates a low-key artistic and cultural atmosphere.
The property also hides a special boon for cocktail lovers: every guest room comes with an essential shaker, cutting board and recipe book, giving guests the chance to make their own cocktails.
In addition, the hotel has a jazz bar, letting guests while away their travels accompanied by old furniture and jazz.
A jazz bar that refreshes travelers
ACE HOTEL wins with its details, turning creatives, writers and editors around the world into its fans; even the founder of Monocle and the editor-in-chief of KINFOLK are regulars. Brands focused on quality of life scramble to open pop-up stores inside the hotel; the Japanese streetwear brand BEAMS, the British independent magazine Cereal and the lifestyle fashion magazine PORTER have all come here to "grab fans."
A wild marriage with its circle of friends
In 2007, ACE HOTEL set up the design studio Atelier Ace. Besides continuing to boost its own hotels' architecture and interior design, it launched a wave of highly creative brand collaborations: from A.P.C, Wings + Horns, BEAMS, Vans and Hender Scheme, to SMEG, Impossible Project, Traveler's Notebook and Moscot... With its hippie attitude and good taste, it cross-pollinates with a host of design brands to make "news bombs."
The front desk of ACE HOTEL London, like a small design-goods shop
ACE HOTE X Tokyobike
The Japanese bicycle label Tokyobike, which has long provided bicycle rental service for ACE HOTEL London, collaborated with ACE HOTEL on a city bicycle available for sale. Tokyobike founder Ichiro Kanai drew design inspiration from his time staying at ACE HOTEL London, blending the tones of ACE HOTEL London into the product and creating trendy bicycles in four different colorways.
Every collaborative bicycle comes with premium textured leather grips and saddle
ACE HOTE X The Impossible Project
With Lady Gaga serving as art director, The Impossible Project team and ACE HOTEL jointly launched a custom instant camera, the "Impossible x Ace Hotel." Its stylish, minimalist black body, paired with white SMILE lettering and PX 600 Silver Shade black-and-white film, delivers the moving feeling of old photographs.
Alongside the launch of the new camera, they also invited the hottest KOLs in the United States at the time to shoot memories at ACE HOTEL with the camera, and held a photography exhibition titled "24 hours at the Ace."
Works exhibited at "24 hours at the Ace"
ACE HOTE X Hender Scheme
The slippers from a collaboration between the niche footwear brand Hender Scheme, led by Japanese designer Ryo Kashiwazaki, and ACE HOTEL are handmade from a single uncut piece of genuine leather. The minimalist, high-quality design led many travelers to buy them and take them home right after trying them at the hotel.
Hender Scheme x Ace Hotel collaborative slippers, available in different men's and women's sizes
ACE HOTEL X MIDORI
The top Japanese lifestyle stationery brand MIDORI stamped the ACE HOTEL logo on the back of its most classic TRAVELER'S Notebook leather cover, and included a literary dark-green linen pouch. Besides being sold in limited quantities at ACE HOTEL London, this notebook can also be purchased at MIDORI headquarters in Naka-Meguro, Tokyo.
ACE HOTEL X VANS
ACE HOTEL's collaboration with the street sports brand VANS was, of course, about selling shoes - this limited-edition collaborative sneaker went on exclusive sale when ACE HOTEL Los Angeles opened. In this collaboration they unexpectedly discovered that all the customers who made a special trip to buy this crossover shoe were basically potential ACE HOTEL customers.
The shoes Vans designed for ACE HOTEL are a little less street and a little more artistic
ACE HOTEL X Wings + Horns
ACE HOTEL collaborated with the North American streetwear brand Wings + Horns to weave details from old-fashioned boxing robes into the hotel's boring white standard bathrobe, making it one of the most popular collaborative products in the Ace shop. What's more, ACE HOTEL even encourages guests to wear it normally as a coat.
The bathrobe inspired by boxing robes, placed in guest rooms at ACE HOTEL New York
ACE HOTEL X PEARL+
PEARL+, which claims to make "the world's best soap," created a soap series exclusively for Ace Hotel, produced in small batches at its workshop in Portland, Oregon, USA.
PEARL+'s moisturizing soap draws saponified oils from olive, coconut, palm, rice bran, shea butter and rosemary, combined with natural pearl powder for exfoliation, carrying a natural and unique fragrance.
The tasteful packaging design is also a key reason travelers buy it to take home after trying it
In addition, ACE HOTEL doesn't overlook pets' sense of style either. These "wearable canine declarations" (dog tags) can now be bought in the shop on ACE HOTEL's official website: "Ball is life!", "I'm already sorry"... Each dog tag captures a dog's inner monologue.
Finally, ACE HOTEL has one more winning secret - unparalleled service.
Compared with luxurious five-star hotels, people usually don't expect too much from the service at design hotels, but ACE HOTEL uses the very best service to overturn people's perception of this kind of boutique hotel.
Its artistic atmosphere is never short on warmth; all the everyday essentials you want are within easy reach, and the waitstaff here always care for guests who have just endured a tiring journey like family.
It is probably precisely its endless creativity, bold aesthetic and thoughtful "you'll want to stay again" service that have made it an outstanding benchmark among design hotels.