Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles

Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles opens in 2013 in the historic United Artists building and theatre – a Broadway landmark built in 1927. The theatre was the flagship for United Artists, the maverick film studio founded by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. Mary Pickford's love for the ornate detail and stone spires of Spanish castles and cathedrals is manifest at the theatre designed by architect C. Howard Crane. The office tower which fronts the theatre was designed by architectural firm Walker & Eisen in Spanish Gothic style. The theatre’s interior is a true temple of the arts, with a proscenium arch and open balcony, a recessed ceiling covered with tiny mirrors that glitter when lit and murals depicting Hollywood greats by Anthony Heinsbergen. Restoring this landmark is the kind of project we dream of and we’re proud to be a part of the on-going revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles.

It was important to Ace Hotel that the design narrative for the property be rooted in the architecture and history of the building as well as its location. The starting point became the year the theatre and tower were built: 1927. We looked at what was happening in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, that year. At the time Hollywood had embraced a mash up of architectural styles, from Tudor to Renaissance to Normandy, you name it. Mary Pickford had commissioned the theatre and tower in the style of her favorite building, the Cathedral in Segovia, Spain.  The result is a mash of Spanish Colonial and Gothic styles. At the same time Los Angeles was becoming a vortex for modernist architecture with people like Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler. We felt the contrast of Gothic and Modernist would be a good place to start. Add to that a layer of cultural rebellion which is embodied by ACE and you get what became our design mantra: Mary Pickford has an affair with Rudolf Schindler and they have a love child, Exene Cervenka, lead singer of the LA punk band X. The relationship visually and culturally between the hedonistic flapper 30’s and the punk years of the 70’s and early 80’s was clear, representing great periods of cultural freedom in LA history.

The theatre was primarily a historic restoration. We touched things up: brought in a new mechanical infrastructure, refurbished the original seats, painted walls, designed a new custom carpet pattern and a new ticket booth that doubles as a newsstand. The hotel tower was a bit more complicated. The building was completely stripped of all interiors. A poured concrete structure, almost brutalist, remained. All new mechanical, plumbing and electric was brought in, and all interiors were designed and built from scratch, including a rooftop bar, lounge and pool.  We embraced the exposed concrete, which was beautiful and full of character and maintained exposed as much of it as possible. The interiors are about Los Angeles, by Los Angeles and for Los Angeles.  Most of the furnishings, custom lighting, and finishes were designed, made or found in California or Mexico. For inspiration we looked at the world in the late 20’s and included touches from all subsequent decades, collecting styles and history in the process:  California moderns, Austrian secessionists, the Bauhaus, French 50’s, Mexican 60’s, LA today.  We enlisted about 15 local artists, artisans and craftsmen to work on different areas of the hotel. Installations ranged from plaster walls covered in charcoal drawings depicting LA history by the Haas Brothers, to felt wall sculptures by Tanya Aguiniga and ceramics by Adam Silverman and Kevin Willis. We wanted the interiors to feel collected, layered and highly personal with Ace’s unmistakable democratically urban stamp. We wanted the interiors to reflect on the architectural and cultural history of Los Angeles and to represent that characteristic irreverence for history and freedom from the conventional that you can only find here.

Commune Design