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Ace Hotel New York
20 West 29th Street
Tel: 212-679-2222
Designer: Roman & Williams

Design-world darlings Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, husband-and-wife team and founding partners of Roman & Williams, successfully scale up their hotel design aesthetic for the New York incarnation of the Ace Hotel. Opened earlier this year in the old Breslin Hotel’s former space on Broadway and 29th Street, the New York Ace has over 300 rooms, compared to 79 and 28 in the hotel’s previous incarnations in Portland and Seattle respectively, but retains the brand’s signature attention to detail. What comes off as thrown-together randomness on a first pass—the lobby is a hodgepodge of found furniture, animal pelts, art, an old apothecary cabinet, steel worktables, a tile floor, trays with glass flasks—soon reveals itself to be the result of a carefully curated design strategy. The cumulative effect balances hip with comfy aesthetics, lush with raw textures, and an array of fabrics from leather to plaid to orange suede. Such an eclectic collection could justifiably spark fears of the precious or twee, but Roman & Williams’ light touch keeps the lobby from feeling like the set of a Wes Anderson movie. It’s a quieter and more laid-back space than the pair’s work on the glamorous Standard Hotel, but no less impressive. Stately white columns punctuate the space, and an 18-foot-high ceiling balances the informal eclecticism with a wash of gravitas. 


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