Hospitality - Creative Quarters

For its newest property in Chicago’s booming downtown, Ace Hotel makes art central to its design.

- Mikki Brammer

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: There was no need to work around existing architecture.

“We wanted to connect the new building to Chicago’s architectural legacy,” says Roman Alonso, co-founder 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.