Ace Hotel
File:Ace logo.jpg | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Hospitality |
Founded | 1999 |
Founder | Alex Calderwood Wade Weigel Doug Herrick |
Headquarters | |
Number of locations | 10 |
Key people |
|
Website | www |
Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels headquartered in Los Angeles, California and New York City. Founded in 1999 in Seattle, it operates hotels primarily in the United States, with locations in Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; New York City; Palm Springs, California; Seattle; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles; and New Orleans. It also has hotels in Panama City, Panama; London, England; and Kyoto, Japan.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Clyde_Hotel.jpg/220px-Clyde_Hotel.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Ace_Hotel_NYC_guest_room_interior.jpg/220px-Ace_Hotel_NYC_guest_room_interior.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Ace_Hotel_NYC_-_WIkipedia_Day_2017_08.jpg/170px-Ace_Hotel_NYC_-_WIkipedia_Day_2017_08.jpg)
The first Ace Hotel was opened in 1999. Friends Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel, and Doug Herrick purchased and transformed a Seattle halfway house into an affordable[clarification needed] hotel that would appeal to the creative class. Calderwood and Weigel had previously founded Rudy's, a reinvigorated traditional barbershop concept they started in Seattle, which eventually expanded to more than a dozen West Coast locations. They also founded Neverstop, a marketing and advertising company.
In 2006, Jack Barron and Michael Bisordi (Tungsten Partners) joined the team as owners. That year the group opened a second hotel in Portland, followed by properties in Palm Springs and New York in 2009.[1]
In 2011, Ace Hotel collaborated with the cosmetics brand uslu airlines to create a nail polish sold in the hotels' mini-bars.
In 2013, an Ace Hotel opened in the Shoreditch neighborhood of London.[2] The company opened a property in Panama City, Panama, as the American Trade Hotel.
Calderwood had defined a goal of opening a new Ace Hotel every "one to two years". He died at age 47 in November 2013, shortly after the opening of the London Shoreditch hotel.[3]
Soon after, the downtown Los Angeles location opened in a former theatre, followed by a hotel in Pittsburgh in late 2015 and in New Orleans in spring 2016.
A location in Kyoto, Japan designed by Kengo Kuma opened in summer 2020.[4]
Locations
According to Calderwood, the style and furnishing of each Ace property is designed to reflect its location, with an eye towards re-imagining properties that are "challenged."[5]
- Ace Hotel Seattle is a former Salvation Army halfway house located in the Belltown neighborhood.
- Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs, CA is a converted Howard Johnson motel, formerly a Westward Ho. King's Highway, the hotel's on-site diner, is a converted Denny's. There are two bars, the Amigo Room, and poolside, the Short Bus. The remodel was a collaboration with L.A.-based design firm, Commune.
- Ace Hotel Portland occupies the former Clyde Hotel in downtown Portland. In its former incarnation, the hotel's lobby served as the setting for a scene from the film Drugstore Cowboy. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[6]
- Ace Hotel New York worked with Roman and Williams[7] to redesign the former Hotel Breslin, a 1904 building in Midtown Manhattan. This location features a Stumptown Coffee and Chef April Bloomfield's[8] Michelin-starred The Breslin[9] restaurant.
- Ace Hotel London Shoreditch is in London's Shoreditch arts district, on the site of the original Shoreditch Empire music hall.[10]
- American Trade Hotel is a restored five-story stucco building in the Casco Viejo historical district of Panama City.[11]
- Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles opened in January 2014 in the historic United Artists Building, with 180 rooms and a restored United Artists Theater performance venue.
- Ace Hotel Pittsburgh opened in an historic YMCA building in the city's East Liberty neighborhood in December 2015.
- Ace Hotel New Orleans opened in March 2016 in a 1928 Art Deco building in New Orleans' Warehouse District.[12]
- Ace Hotel Chicago opened on July 1, 2017. This is Ace's first ground-up build. Situated in Chicago's West Loop, it features a lobby restaurant called 'City Mouse', 7th floor bar 'Waydown', and the first Stumptown Coffee shop in Chicago.
- Ace Hotel Kyoto opened on June 11, 2020. This is Ace Hotel's first property in Japan.
In popular culture
The 2011 episode "Blunderbuss" of the sketch comedy series Portlandia had a sketch set at the "Deuce Hotel", where the obnoxiously hip staff hand out complimentary turntables and typewriters to all guests;[13] it was a parody specifically of Ace Hotel Portland.[14]
On her song Ace, rapper Noname talks about being at Ace Hotel in London.[15]
Bon Iver makes a reference to the Ace Hotel Los Angeles in the song "33 "GOD"" on the album 22, A Million.
References
- ^ "Sunday CEO: Alex Calderwood, Ace Hotel & Swim Club". The Desert Sun. February 1, 2009. Archived from the original on 11 March 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
- ^ "First Look: Ace Hotel London Shoreditch · HUH". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
- ^ "Alex Calderwood, Creator and Face of the Unconventional Ace Hotel Chain, Dies at 47". The New York Times. November 15, 2013.
- ^ "kengo kuma to design ace hotel's first japanese location". designboom | architecture & design magazine. 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2018-04-10.
- ^ Torline, Monica. "Aces high on pop culture", The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, 1 October 2009.
- ^ "Ace's Sense of Place". Portland Tribune. May 29, 2007. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
- ^ "Style & Substance". Metropolis. 22 July 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-07-31. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
- ^ "The Breslin's Little Britain". Villagevoice.com. January 12, 2010.
- ^ "Diet Someplace Else". Nymag.com. January 24, 2010.
- ^ "Theatre-inspired interiors for Ace Hotel Shoreditch". Design Week. September 10, 2013.
- ^ "Panama City Gets a Facelift and an Ace Hotel". W (magazine). November 6, 2013.
- ^ Costello, Sara Ruffin (22 March 2016). "A Cult Hotel Opens in New Orleans". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- ^ "Blunderbuss" review, The A.V. Club, February 18, 2011
- ^ Portlandia: Over | Flyer Wars | Deuce Hotel, Anne Adams, Portland Monthly Culturephile blog, March 1, 2011
- ^ Noname (Ft. Saba & Smino) – Ace, retrieved 2019-05-06