Ace Hotel & Swim Club

Theirs is not the intimidating, almost alienating brand of cool that seems to be the goal of the typical modern urban boutique hotel. Though design is a vital element in the Ace hotels, nowhere is it prankish or self-consciously avant-garde. One struggles to find a better word than “funky” to describe the sensibility: vintage but not retro, with a celebratory respect paid to the past rather than an ironic arched eyebrow. And sustainability here is not a slogan or a mission statement but an organic side effect of the use of second-hand furniture and surplus hardware.