Ace Hotel
Ace Hotels logo | |
Company type | Hotel chain |
---|---|
Industry | Hotel |
Founded | 1999 |
Founder | Alex Calderwood Wade Weigel Doug Herrick |
Headquarters | Portland, Oregon |
Number of locations | 7 |
Website | acehotel.com |
Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels headquartered in Portland, Oregon. It operates hotels in Portland, New York, Palm Springs, Panama City, Panama, London, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles.
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)
The first Ace Hotel opened in 1999. Friends Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel, and Doug Herrick purchased and transformed a Seattle halfway house into an affordable hotel that would appeal to the creative class. Calderwood and Weigel had previously founded Rudy's, a barbershop concept they started in Seattle that eventually expanded to more than a dozen West Coast locations, and a marketing and advertising company known as Neverstop.
In 2006, Jack Barron, and Michael Bisordi (Tungsten Partners), joined the team as owners, and a second hotel was opened 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] as well as a property in Panama by the name of American Trade Hotel. Soon after, the downtown Los Angeles location opened.
Calderwood had stated a goal of opening a new Ace Hotel every "one to two years." He died in November 2013, shortly after the opening of the London Shoreditch hotel.[3]
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.”[4]
- 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.[5]
- Ace Hotel New York worked with Roman and Williams[6] to redesign the former Hotel Breslin, a 1904 building in Midtown Manhattan. This location features a Stumptown Coffee and Chef April Bloomfield's [7] Michelin-starred The Breslin [8] restaurant.
- Ace Hotel London Shoreditch is in London's Shoreditch arts district, on the site of the original Shoreditch Empire music hall.[9]
- American Trade Hotel is a restored five-story stucco building in the Casco Viejo historical district of Panama City.[10]
- Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles opened in the historic United Artists Building, with 180 rooms and a restored United Artists Theater performance venue, in January 2014.
- Ace Hotel Pittsburgh opened in a historic YMCA Building in the city's East Liberty neighborhood in December 2015.
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;[11] it was a parody specifically of the Portland Ace Hotel.[12]
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.
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suggested) (help) - ^ http://www.huhmagazine.co.uk/5570/first-look-ace-hotel-london-shoreditch
- ^ "Alex Calderwood, Creator and Face of the Unconventional Ace Hotel Chain, Dies at 47". New York Times. November 15, 2013.
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(help) - ^ 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. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
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(help) - ^ "Style & Substance". Metropolis. 22 July 2009.
- ^ "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.
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(help) - ^ "Panama City Gets a Facelift and an Ace Hotel". W (magazine). November 6, 2013.
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(help) - ^ "Blunderbuss" review, The A.V. Club, February 18, 2011
- ^ Portlandia: Over | Flyer Wars | Deuce Hotel, Anne Adams, Portland Monthly Culturephile blog, March 1, 2011