Bronze ice casting by designer Steven Haulenbeek. Courtesy Mike Schwartz
What would it look like if Mies van der Rohe designed a hotel today? This was the head-scratcher that Kelly Sawdon, partner and chief brand officer of Ace Hotel/Atelier Ace, and her team posed for the design of the new Ace Hotel Chicago.
The task of physically realizing it fell upon Los Angeles–based Commune Design. Though the studio had previously worked on three Ace properties, the Chicago outpost offered a clean slate: For the brand’s first ground-up build, there was no need to work around existing architecture.
“We wanted to connect the new building to Chicago’s architectural legacy,” says Roman Alonso, cofounder of Commune Design. “Van der Rohe’s Illinois Institute of Technology was a source of inspiration; the exterior material palette of brick and metal, the dark terrazzo floors, and some of the detailing were inspired by his buildings.” For the interiors, they looked to the Farnsworth House and the Bauhaus—particularly the work of Josef and Anni Albers and László Moholy-Nagy.
Canvas wall panels by Erik DeBat, whose work is inspired by Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism, on the walls of Waydown—Ace Chicago’s upstairs bar. Courtesy Mike Schwartz