Contract - April 2014 - 69

Ace Hotel
Downtown Los Angeles
Commune reimagines the
interior of a historic building
as a cool downtown hotel
By Michael Webb
Photography by
Spencer Lowell

For the interior, Roman Alonso, the partner in charge of the
project at Commune, drew inspiration from the modernist cafes
that Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos designed in Vienna, and the
house-studio that Viennese émigré R.M. Schindler built for himself in
West Hollywood in 1922. To this fusion of progressive and historicist
design, Alonso added a dash of 1980s punk, which he interprets as a
reincarnation of the flapper era. "It would have been easy to replicate
period ornament, but that didn't feel right for Ace, which likes to twist
things and turn them on their ear," Alonso says. "We wanted the
interiors to be surprising and radically different from the facade."
The narrow elevator lobby for the tower serves as a reception
area that leads to a restaurant with a bar and mezzanine lounge that
can open onto the street. The color palette is black and white, with
a checkerboard floor echoed in the tiled dado. Mirrors dematerialize
the massive columns that were added as part of a seismic upgrade,
giving the room a sparkle and making it feel more spacious. Glasstopped wood screens, modernist light fittings, and a mix of new and
traditional seating intensify the atmosphere. The concrete floor and
partially exposed structure are complemented by white plaster on
which two local artists, brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas, have made
delicate graphite sketches of Hollywood stars and Southern California
hills and flora-a subtle way of adding local flavor.

Downtown Los Angeles is regaining the appeal it had a century ago
as a place to live and play as well as to work. Broadway was almost as
glamorous a theater district in the 1920s as its namesake in New York,
and aging facades conceal several former movie palaces. Ace Hotel
has brought one of these sleeping beauties back to life, restoring
the 1,600-seat United Artists auditorium as an events space, and
repurposing the 13-story office tower as guestrooms.
This is the seventh Ace Hotel for the idiosyncratic brand that
infuses an understated bohemian, hipster-cool vibe within old, existing
buildings. The brand began in Seattle and has now extended its reach
to Manhattan, London, Palm Springs, Panama City, and Portland,
Oregon. "We approach all our projects the same way," says Ace Hotel
Executive Vice President Kelly Sawdon, "looking for a narrative that
will give each of our properties a feeling for place and authenticity."
Locally sourced materials and finishes
For the Los Angeles hotel, that sense of place goes back to 1919,
Three meeting rooms occupy the second floor, and here Commune has
when actors Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin,
enlivened the space with wall collages and art glass from the venerable
and director D. W. Griffith founded United Artists to make films
Judson Studios. The tower's typical floor plate is barely 5,000 square
independently of the big studios. It was an era of extravagance in
Hollywood, and United Artists built its own showcase for gala premieres feet, which created a challenge for the designers to exploit every inch
to fit the 182 compact guestrooms and suites. Taking cues from
and to give fans a taste of the exotic. Within a reinforced concrete
structure, a Spanish Gothic fantasy was created that was echoed in the Schindler's house, the designers used Homasote panels to give the
walls a warm, tactile feel, and gray-stained MDF cabinets provide
stone carvings and spiky lantern of the tower. Its glory days, though,
versatile storage. Custom beds have a side pocket for the tuner that
were short-lived: the Great Depression hastened its decline, and the
controls a wall-mounted screen. Bathrooms are a model of space
building was last owned by evangelical preacher Gene Scott for his
planning with a partially enclosed shower and toilet flanking a
ministry. An iconic "Jesus Saves" neon sign, a remnant from the Scott
steel-and-marble vanity. "Eighty percent of the furnishings were
era, remains on the roof. Real estate investment company Greenfield
Partners purchased the building in 2011 and developed it for Ace Hotel. made in California or Mexico," Alonso says.
The opulent theater has been carefully restored and is now an
event space for the hotel and home to the artist collective L.A. Dance
Design team collaborates with artisans
Project. A rooftop lounge and pool extend from a loft-like bar beneath
Commune, a Los Angeles-based firm that also designed the Ace
the tower lantern. Here, and throughout the hotel, local artists have
Hotel that opened in Palm Springs in 2009, was brought on board to
been given a free hand to create site-specific work. "We rely more
complete the Ace Hotel Los Angeles interiors. GREC Architects of
on instinct than calculation," explains Alonso. "Sometimes you hit
Chicago served as design architects and Killefer Flammang Architects
the mark at once, and other times you have to make adjustments.
of Santa Monica were the executive architects. The firms collaborated
Every space needs to provide an experience and Ace allows us to
with specialists and artisans to restore the street facade to its original
do what we want." c
appearance and create a new interior within the shell of the tower.
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Contract - April 2014

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