Los Angeles studio Commune Design has used vibrant modernist furnishings to decorate the Ace Hotel in Chicago, in a nod to the city’s architectural history.
The boutique hotel group has completed its latest hotel in Chicago’s West Loop, a neighbourhood known for its trendy design and food scenes.
A collection of different buildings were joined together to form the 159-room hotel, with spaces for hosting events, as well as a rooftop bar and lounge.
Structural work on the six-storey hotel was completed by local firm GREC Architects, which also worked on Ace’s downtown Los Angeles location inside a 1920s. Commune was also involved with the design for the LA outpost.
For the new Chicago location, the team aimed to offer a mix of old and new, being careful to preserve the facade of the old Fulton Market cheese factory on the south side of the building.
Ace Hotel described it as offering “the spirit of the New Bauhaus in Chicago”. The interior design “pays homage to the city of Chicago by marrying mid-western craftsmanship with utilitarian design”, the company said.
Furniture pieces reference mid-century decor, with pops of yellow, pink, green and blue adding vibrancy and warmth to the clean lines.
The designs reference the work of modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who practised in downtown Chicago for over 30 years during the mid 20th century and is famously associated with the city.
“Simple, straightforward and thoughtfully detailed materials evoke Mies Van Der Rohe’s work at the Illinois Institute of Technology,” said the hotel chain.
Rooms have built-in pieces made of plywood and other modernist furniture evocative of designs originally made at the Bauhaus school in the 1930s, where Mies van der Rohe served as its last director.
“Linoleum furnishings juxtaposed with the polished steel are nods to the designs of Arne Jacobsen and Richard Neutra,” Ace Hotel added, referring to two other renowned modernists.
Each room also comes with a unique piece of art made by a student from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The hotel also commissioned a series of works from the city’s Volume Gallery.
Ace Hotel is known for its one-off boutique offerings that are designed by different firms depending on location. With outposts in a handful of US cities, the Portland-based company has also reached as far as London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood and Panama City.
Photography is by Spencer Lowell.
The post Ace Hotel Chicago features colourful mid-century-style interiors by Commune appeared first on Dezeen.