Ace Hotels
Encyclopedia
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. It operates hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s in Seattle, Portland, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. Ace has been called “the country’s most original” hotel by the New York Times, and a “mega-chain waiting to happen” by Wallpaper (magazine).
History
Halfway house
The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support; this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse when compared to a...
into an affordable hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
that would appeal to the creative class
Creative class
The Creative Class is a socioeconomic class that economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, identifies as a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial...
. Calderwood and Weigel had previously founded Rudy's
Rudy's Barbershop
Rudy's Barbershop is a chain of barbershops founded in Seattle, Washington and located primarily on the United States West Coast. The first Rudy's was opened by Alex Calderwood, David Petersen and Wade Weigel in 1992...
, 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 2007, Jack Barron joined the team, and a second hotel was opened in Portland, followed by properties in Palm Springs in 2009 & New York in 2010.
Properties
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.”
- Ace Hotel Seattle is a former Salvation ArmySalvation ArmyThe Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
halfway house located in the BelltownBelltown, Seattle, WashingtonBelltown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, in the 98121 Zip Code, located on the city's downtown waterfront, on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project...
neighborhood. - Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs, CA is a converted Howard JohnsonHoward Johnson'sHoward Johnson's is a chain of hotels and restaurants, located primarily throughout the United States and Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Howard Johnson's was the largest restaurant chain in the United States, with over 1,000 restaurants...
motel, and King's Highway, the hotel's on-site diner, is a converted Denny'sDenny'sDenny's is a full-service coffee shop/family restaurant chain. It operates over 1,500 restaurants in the United States , Canada, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan , Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.Denny's is known for always being...
. There are two bars, the Amigo Room, and poolside, the Short Bus. The hotel was originally a Westward Ho prior to being a Howard Johnson. The remodel was a collaboration with L.A.-based design firm, Commune. - Ace Hotel Portland occupies the former Clyde HotelClyde HotelThe Clyde Hotel is a historic hotel located in the downtown area of Portland, Oregon, United States. It was renamed to Ben Stark Hotel in 1987, then became the Ace Hotel Portland in 2005.-National Register:...
in downtown Portland. In its former incarnation, the hotel's lobby served as the setting for a scene from the film Drugstore CowboyDrugstore CowboyDrugstore Cowboy is a 1989 crime drama directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost, based on a novel by James Fogle. Matt Dillon stars in the title role, and Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and William S. Burroughs are also featured. Drugstore Cowboy was filmed mainly around...
. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. - Ace Hotel New York worked with Roman and Williams to redesign the former Hotel Breslin, a 1904 building in Midtown ManhattanMidtown ManhattanMidtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
. This location features a Stumptown Coffee and Chef April Bloomfield's Michelin-starred The Breslin restaurant.
In popular culture
The 2011 episode "Blunderbuss" of the sketch comedy series PortlandiaPortlandia (TV series)
Portlandia is a television series that debuted on the Independent Film Channel on January 21, 2011. The show, produced by Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel, is set and filmed both in and near Portland, Oregon and features Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen as well as Carrie Brownstein, a...
had a sketch set at the "Deuce Hotel", where the obnoxiously hip staff hand out complimentary turntables and typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
s to all guests; it was a parody specifically of the Portland Ace Hotel.