Ace Hotel
{New York}
" LOVE IS MEANT TO MAKE US GLAD "
Look out Standard,
the Ace Hotel here!
With a novel concept and hipster cachet,
hotelier Alex Calderwood brings
the Ace Hotel
to midtown Manhattan.
hotelier Alex Calderwood brings
the Ace Hotel
to midtown Manhattan.
Hotelier Alex Calderwood, who bills himself as a “cultural engineer” on his business card (which bears his name in English, Chinese and Japanese), is unfazed by the prospect of opening a branch of his hipster Ace Hotel chain on a less-than-fashionable corner of Manhattan: the intersection of West 29th Street and Broadway, which teems with bootleg fragrance shops and vendors hawking pleather belts for two bucks a pop.“You’d be surprised,” says the spry, swarthy Calderwood, 38, who sports a gravity-defying mop of curls (“The look is Spanish, but the hair is Scottish,” he deadpans). “These buildings are being filled up with creative services, graphic designers. Paper magazine just moved near here.”
The alterna-rag is a fitting neighbor for the Ace, which opens in February. Years ago, the Seattle native and friends Wade Weigel, Doug Herrick and Jack Barron decided to create a chic, minimalist hotel priced on a sliding scale (the low end meant shared bathrooms). In 1999 the Ace Hotel Seattle opened; in 2007 another one followed in Portland, Oregon.
Calderwood already had a name in Seattle: During grunge’s heyday, he threw warehouse parties to which the flannel-clad set, including members of Pearl Jam, flocked. Soon he was organizing over-the-top events for Microsoft, among others; next he and Weigel started Rudy’s, an old-school barbershop, which expanded to 14 West Coast locations. A Rudy’s and a Stumptown coffee shop, a Portland favorite, will make their East Coast debuts on the new hotel’s first floor.
A commissioned artwork on raw canvas hangs behind a Roman and Williams–designed coffee table.
Yet Calderwood insists that each Ace reflects its location, not a Northwest sensibility (for example, Ace Hotel and Swim Club Palm Springs, California, opening in January, has a desert feel). “The design captures the industrial heritage of Manhattan, the grittiness,” he says.
Calderwood achieved the look by tapping celebrity-darling design firm Roman and Williams (Kate Hudson and Gwyneth Paltrow are clients), run by married duo Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, to create the hotel’s 247 rooms, with nightly rates ranging from $179 for bunk beds (with en suite bathrooms) to $1,499 for a palatial loft. The rooms riff on a rock star’s pad, with deskside turntables, old records, blank sheet music and—of course—custom-made Gibson guitars propped in corners (guitar strings are sold at the front desk); cheaper rooms have fewer details. In a nod to the nearby Garment District, guests hang clothes on pipes meant to suggest rolling dress racks and stash shoes in antique sewing bins bought at Paris’s Clignancourt flea market. The lobby is outfitted with vintage furniture and inherited its coffered ceiling and mosaic floor from the spot’s former occupant, the Hotel Breslin; three wood-paneled walls, salvaged from a Park Avenue apartment’s library, enclose a bar.
A turntable and vintage records.
Rockers also need to eat, and the Ace’s trump card is the team from the West Village’s wildly popular eatery the Spotted Pig: chef-owner April Bloomfield and restaurateur Ken Friedman. Their ground-floor restaurant will have a turn-of-the-century New York vibe, with curtained booths and a vintage, charred-oak floor—“like a place you have a brawl [in],” chirps Standefer—and will serve what Friedman cheerfully refers to as “nose-to-tail cooking,” adding, “eat the trotters, eat the ears, eat the head—it’s definitely not a place vegetarians are going to feel great in.”
Ultimately the Ace is betting that its downtown dream team can transcend a démodé enclave. “To us, it’s like we can be pioneers right in the middle of Manhattan,” says Friedman. “[But] I don’t want the area to become more chichi. God forbid it becomes like the Meatpacking District.” Calderwood, who lives a few blocks from the hotel, agrees. “I think we’re going to be the heart of the neighborhood. This will be a living room for all the people around it.”
Ace Hotel New York by Roman & Williams
Ace Hotel New York
20 West 29th Street
Tel: 212-679-2222
Designer: Roman & Williams
Design-world darlings Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, husband-and-wife team and founding partners of Roman & Williams, successfully scale up their hotel design aesthetic for the New York incarnation of the Ace Hotel. Opened earlier this year in the old Breslin Hotel’s former space on Broadway and 29th Street, the New York Ace has over 300 rooms, compared to 79 and 28 in the hotel’s previous incarnations in Portland and Seattle respectively, but retains the brand’s signature attention to detail. What comes off as thrown-together randomness on a first pass—the lobby is a hodgepodge of found furniture, animal pelts, art, an old apothecary cabinet, steel worktables, a tile floor, trays with glass flasks—soon reveals itself to be the result of a carefully curated design strategy. The cumulative effect balances hip with comfy aesthetics, lush with raw textures, and an array of fabrics from leather to plaid to orange suede. Such an eclectic collection could justifiably spark fears of the precious or twee, but Roman & Williams’ light touch keeps the lobby from feeling like the set of a Wes Anderson movie. It’s a quieter and more laid-back space than the pair’s work on the glamorous Standard Hotel, but no less impressive. Stately white columns punctuate the space, and an 18-foot-high ceiling balances the informal eclecticism with a wash of gravitas.
DOUGLAS LYLE THOMPSON
DOUGLAS LYLE THOMPSON
DOUGLAS LYLE THOMPSON AND JON JOHNSON
DOUGLAS LYLE THOMPSON AND JON JOHNSON
Inside the Ace Hotel
(Katie Sokoler/Gothamist)
Look out Standard, the Ace Hotel is here! Last summer renderings of the establishment's interior began to circulate, as well as some more details about what the chain would bring to New York (they currently have outposts in Seattle, Portland and Palm Springs). Today we stopped by for a sneak peek inside the still unfinished hotel, located at 29th and Broadway. The room we saw had all the fun details the Ace is known for, and rumor has it that long ago the longest ever boxing match happened in the basement of the building, which is why the hotel made the bath robes look like boxing robes!
Though you won't be able to rest your head there until the end of March, they're taking reservations now with opening rates at a low $99. There's even something for locals: the latest caffeine craze, Stumptown Coffee, will be housed in the lobby.
********Review the Ace Hotel
From Julie
When the original Ace Hotel opened in Seattle, Time described it as “a superaesthetic barrack, with an in-the-know economy of style.” The new Ace Hotel in New York, located in the former Hotel Breslin and set to open in February, fits the same description: turntables in every room, vintage furniture, retro plumbing fixtures. Roman & Williams, the team behind the revamped Royalton Hotel, was in charge of the overhaul. The ambience promises to be achingly hip, with a curated music selection from Other Music at the front desk (guests can purchase CDs and vinyl). Product collaborations include custom Pendleton blankets and a boxing-robe-meets-hooded-sweatshirt by Wings and Horns. The team behind the Spotted Pig is in charge of the restaurant, and Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters is providing the caffeine. On the corner of Broadway and 29th Street; go to Ace Hotel for reservation information.
Inside the Ace Hotel
It's no secret that we derive a lot of inspiration from hotel design, (we've written about it here, here and here) so we were pretty psyched to learn that Ace Hotel New York will be open on February 1. The hotel already has some serious buzz. We've written about Ace Hotel Portland, and it looks like the hotel will be infused with a similar rocker vibe, but with a serious nod to its New York location.
Check out some drawings of the new Ace Hotel New York. AThese were drawn by our design firm Roman and Williams.
Here is a little info on the new hotel, located at 29th and Broadway in Manhattan. The Ace Hotel New York features a wide variety of room types. From bunk bed rooms starting at $199 all the way up to Loft Suites at $899
Ace is the low card and the high card. Â Our basic rooms are affordable but replete with cool amenities. Our big suites offer all the luxury you would expect from a high-end hotel. Our sensibility is democratic and inclusive. We appeal to a broad spectrum of travelers, directly, without reducing everything to the lowest common denominator. Â The proof is in the common areas, where all these disparate types come together in a social place that is both dynamic and intimate, vibrant and warm.
Ace Hotel New York is improvisational, a mix of styles, historical periods and objects that come together in layers. The hotel’s design takes its cues from the vibrancy of street life, the honesty of materials and the potential of invention. It is about soul, latent in the old architecture and re-introduced through the new design.
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Ace Hotel NYC to Open with $99 Rooms
Although there's no construction site to go by since The Ace Hotel is converting SRO housing into what will be their hip, happening pad, we've got to judge from all of the recent press (W Magazine, Monocle, Apartment Therapy) and their open bookings engine that all systems are go for an early March opening.
We wouldn't even be surprised to see them pull a Standard and open in late February to called-in reservations; they seem to be that far along. If this is the case, then we're just one measly month away from Smeg refrigerators and Paris flea market finds.
Turning our focus to the all-important New York nightly rates, the $99 for a bunk or "cheap queen" at the Ace means that they are setting themselves up to directly challenge the other big SRO-turned-hotel in town, The Jane. A few months ago, $209 looked to be the starting rate for the Ace, but whether it's the economy's fault or a jump-off for advertising, the price drop definitely means one thing: the Jane and the Ace are about to engage in a battle of the $99 room rate, and we couldn't be more thrilled.
[photo: W Magazine]
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Ace Hotel NYC to Lobby Squatters: Out!
Oh no; we've created a monster. After naming the expansive and dark-and-comfy lobby at the Ace Hotel New York as one of our favorite digital nomad lobbies, we expected to share the space with a few other laptop-tapping entrepreneurs, but not the glut of them that fills the place now!
Earlier this week we reported on the "[t]housands of stories" waiting to be told at New York's Ace Hotel. One of Massify's budding filmmakers might consider making a short about a recent squabble between management and lobby squatters—including freelancers and fans of the Ace who have taken to parking themselves at the hotel, sans reservations.
NBC New York quotes the original post by Charlie O'Donnell, who says that "a long study hall style table, comfortable couches, and wifi whose codes are the worst kept secret..." all contribute to the Ace's lobby allure, and let's not forget the proximity of the Stumptown coffeeshop. These qualities may make the space ideal for working, but with droves of people clogging its bottom floor and creating major foot traffic, the higher-ups have taken action.
Small placards reading "Get a Room! These seats are reserved for hotel guests only." have been littered around the lobby, reports O'Donnell. Lobby crowding is now a constant issue at the Ace, and will likely grow now that The Breslin is open for business. Last time we dropped by—in the middle of a weekday, mind you—all seats were indeed filled. Perhaps they were stuffed with the same luminaries that O'Donnell spotted: author Malcolm Gladwell, Charlie Rose, Tobey Maguire and Zach Klein of Boxee and Vimeo. We remember when we were the only cool kids blogging from the long study table.
With this vacate warning being issued from Ace management, it's back to Starbucks it is for wayward tech folk—if they know what's good for them.
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The Ace Hotel’s Lobby
When you think of inviting places to hang out, a Manhattan hotel lobby isn’t the first thing that springs to mind — nor is the area around 29th Street and Broadway. So the lobby of the recently opened Ace Hotel came as a pleasant surprise. The latest effort by the Northwest-based proprietors of hip yet reasonably priced lodgings (and its first on the East Coast) was designed by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of the New York firm Roman and Williams, who turned a decrepit landmark 1904 building that formerly housed the Hotel Breslin into a haven of too-cool-for-school bohemian chic.
The 18-foot-high lobby space, with its original mosaic tile floor and carved plaster ceiling, embodies what Standefer calls “the anti-boutique hotel concept.” She and Alesch were looking for that sense of familiarity common to old hotels in Europe, where you feel as if you’re sitting in someone’s living room. A comfortable clutter of found objects — “New furniture wouldn’t be familiar enough,” Standefer said — fills the space, from stuffed birds to old laboratory tables to bachelor-pad sectional seating and plaid wing chairs.
Atop an old bookcase, a tray holds a raft of mercury glass flasks; a large blackboard at the back of the room broadcasts the cocktails du jour in the bar area. There are magazines and newspapers for browsing, and the occasional appearance of one of the old hotel’s residents (it used to be an SRO, and some people refused to move) gives the room a down-to-earth, communal vibe. And the wall behind the staircase is home to an installation by the artist Michael Anderson, who copied his collection of 20 years’ worth of graffiti tags and turned them into a graphic black-and-white collage.
Roman and Williams (who did the redesign of the Royalton as well as the interiors of the Standard Hotel and its restaurant, the Standard Grill) are currently at work on two other spaces in the Ace — a restaurant called the Breslin, which will be run by the Spotted Pig’s Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield, and a branch of Portland’s Stumptown Coffee (for which the designers chose a 1960s Milanese look). When both open in the fall, this still-scruffy neighborhood won’t know what hit it.
Douglas Lyle Thompson
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Ace Hotel Uniforms
Our homies at Cool Hunting get a nice exclusive on some of the wears to expect on the folks “caring” for you over at the new Ace Hotel in New York.
Beyond offering affordable comfort and style, Ace Hotels distinguish themselves by integrating into the culture of their home city. Our recent visit to the Ace NYC proved no different—the property embraces a deep history of art, music and design that speaks to New York originality. The Ace perspective on NYC style even shows up in their staff uniforms, compiled from iconic New York staples and thoughtful designer collaborations.
Standard issue footwear is either drab green monochrome Chucks created by Converse exclusively for the Ace or classic black Doc Marten's embossed with a skeleton key. The jeans are by Levi's and Newark-based L. Gambert created custom fitted shirts, handcrafted from patterning to production and overseen by second and third generation family artisans. L. Gambert also created the housekeeping uniform, a utilitarian shirt-dress. The vintage Glen-check Coto tie and blackened silver Surface 2 Air tie chain complete the look.
Once the weather turns cold, doormen will wear a simple Spiewak pea coat and Uniqlo cardigan juxtaposing classic and contemporary from Spiewak's WWII roots and Uniqlo's clean lines.
Check Ace NYC for details on reservations. And stay tuned for the Fall openings of Stumptown Coffee, Breslin, a new restaurant from April Bloomfield and the Spotted Pig crew and a store with the Project No. 8 team behind it.
All photographs courtesy of John Mark Sorum.
A few more views of the Ace Hotel New York Uniforms after the jump.
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“the anti-boutique hotel concept.”
-the portastylistic
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