Spotlight: Ace Hotel Los Angeles
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Laure Joliet
Photo Credit: Laure Joliet
Photo Credit: Laure Joliet
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
Photo Credit: Spencer Lowell
“The architecture here is one of a kind,” says Acne Studios Creative Director Jonny Johansson of the downtown Los Angeles Broadway Theatre district. “The buildings are all aging so gracefully.” The latest structure in the area to get a facelift is the United Artists building—a tower and theatre built in 1927—just down the street from the 1930s steel-frame structure housing Acne. Its new tenant is an Ace Hotel.
The hotel is a fitting addition to the Red Wing boot-heavy neighborhood that now includes Acne Studios and Aesop, and will soon house Tanner Goods and Kinfolk Studios. The Atelier Ace design team partnered with L.A.-based design firm Commune to rework both the minimalist poured concrete aesthetic of the original tower and the ornate 1600-seat Spanish Gothic theatre. There’s a nice symmetry between the theatre’s original owners—maverick filmmakers Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks—and the Ace team of Wade Weigel, Doug Herrick, and Jack Barron (and founder Alex Calderwood who passed away last year) known for their properties in Seattle, Portland, New York, London, Palm Springs, and Panama.
The new hotel includes 182 rooms and 14 suites (the Presidential suite boasts views of the famed Jesus Saves sign, a relic of the building’s former incarnation as a church led by Pastor Gene Scott). Commune used Rudolf Schindler’s West Hollywood residence as inspiration for the rooms, exposing original concrete ceilings and installing Homasote (fiber wall board) on walls for insulation and sound absorption. Noguchi lamps and Pendleton blankets can be found in each room, and steel-and-glass windows separate bathrooms from living and sleeping spaces.
Hotel rooms are outfitted with boxes containing made-in-California snacks such as Abba-Zaba candy bars, Z Confections salted popcorn, and Dried and True beef jerky. Amoeba Music curated the hotel’s record selection with an emphasis on L.A. bands and musicians. Many rooms have turntables and records that can be traded through the concierge desk, and a small selection of vinyl can be found for sale in the lobby. There’s even staff paper for composers who find inspiration during their stay.
The hotel’s rooftop pool and lounge, Upstairs, was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Los Feliz and Hollywood’s famed Les Deux Café. The concrete pool pays homage to Donald Judd’s swimming hole in Marfa, Texas. Joshua Tree-based sculptor Alma Allen crafted cedar deck furniture that sits beneath light fixtures by Robert Lewis Studio. On the ground floor, restaurateur Jud Mongell of Brooklyn’s Five Leaves opened L.A. Chapter serving locally-sourced home-style dishes, Stumptown coffee, and a see-and-be-seen vibe. The bar’s craft cocktail list includes classics that Pickford and her ilk would recognize.
by Elizabeth Varnell
Pictured: The lobby at the new Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Photo by Spencer Lowell
