Comments on: The Ace Hotel, New York / Roman and Williams

By: Geoff Painter

Geoff Painter — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:57:54 +0000

The Ace Hotel, New York / Roman and Williams | ArchDaily http://t.co/owDdtiW via @archdaily

By: RubenH

RubenH — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:58:25 +0000

I like it! It’s retro-rustique with a modern twist. I’m a sucker for letters used in furnishing, so I love the huge A, but what I loved the most was the lamps surrounding the columns.
One thing I didn’t like was the lightning in one of the rooms (I hope it’s not like that in all of them). It looks cold and uninviting.

By: David Basulto

David Basulto — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:42:17 +0000

It’s been nice to see it become a place for the NY tech scene to meet.

By: stephen

stephen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:26:52 +0000

great questions asked in the original article, nice to see some open mindedness about the language of built work. There is a quite a lock down in architecture and architectural interiors as far as “clean” “abstract” and “distilled”. My entire life has been oppressed by it. There is quite a large group of Architects and designers (and those things in rendering: called people) growing out there interested in the opposites. “Weighty” “explicit” and “fully flavored”! Finally something different out there and not the same “invent everything all the time” formulas. Which ultimately has caused alot of work to look ultimately the same. Its sort of like Blue Jeans, The pants of rebels! Everyone has worn nothing but for 30 years now. The pressed slacks they replaced have all but disappeared and your now rebelling against nothing. There is no traditional architecture left in america, so you can put down the weapons. It has been dead since probably 1936. If some offices choose to work in a historical language think of it as reanimating your nemesis, so that your clean modernist work has something to compare, contrast and obliterate with powerful philosophies of “authenticity”. Otherwise your just going to be building your work in a sea of more clean and abstracted work and that ultimately might not be that interesting. Ie: everyone in jeans.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:18:05 +0000

This is a great thread and it’s fantastic to see so many passionate responses.
Here’s my take on it;
Personally I don’t love this design, but it is a hundred times better than most architects could do.
Architects in my country constantly deride interior designers.
It is pathetic. Just because you spend 6 years at university reading Deleuze and ‘folding’ space doesn’t mean you can make a room that people actually want to spend any time in.
Interior designers can. And thank god. Because most architects can’t.
This is a broad generalisation of course. Yes, there are bad interior designers. And there are architects that know how to light a room. But they are the exception to the rule where I come from.
Good on Archdaily for publishing this.
And good on interior designers for doing what they do.
(I am an architect by the way – and i am constantly shocked at the appalling ‘interiors’ some of my esteemed colleagues pull out of their *sses)

By: David Basulto

David Basulto — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:35:15 +0000

David,

I don´t say that “our profession is disconnected” in general, just to some of these comments, like yours. And I don´t even say that it’s taste of the masses, as the tech scene I mentioned is just a niche. Does everything have to be timeless? I find that subjective.

By: David Vera

David Vera — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:12:52 +0000

Arch Daily (David Basulto),

Thank-you for responding to my query. I have to say that I am now disappointed by your answer. Are you yourself an Architect? To suggest that our profession is disconnected from what people like I find odd. For every great building there is a great owner/client. Now, I would agree that the taste of the masses is not good. If we went by numbers then all the best homes are cookie cutter, all the best neighborhoods are buried deep within suburbia and all office towers would be cheap, unsustainable and poorly designed… just based on numbers of course. I don’t like it when architects are not considered to be “people”… we most definitely are and are trained to see past the generic drab of the everyday. I made a comment this morning because for every photo I saw for this project I just asked “why?”

When I see a project I also see it in the context of history. It is a way to approach it’s validity. What will happen when this hotel is not trendy in 6 months because a cooler one opened down the block? It becomes nothing… Let’s produce architecture that is timeless shall we.

I enjoy this website very much because I find many to be timeless and just had to comment on this project… I thought it slipped through the cracks.

Thanks

By: RQH

RQH — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:21:50 +0000

Things don’t have to be crisp and new to be good design. And things don’t have to be crisp and new to be modern. In fact, if you want to design a beautiful place where people are comfortable I’d suggest layering a mixture of old and new things, exactly like R&W has done here.

By: stephen

stephen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:51:11 +0000

ACE was not designed for typical Architects.
Its for “people” and people interested in people, not “architecture”.

By: Peter Garlington

Peter Garlington — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:30:12 +0000

Flea market and shabby chic (even mid-century shabby chic) do not good design make.
There’s ton of good, interesting contemporary design going on out there… from small design/build firms to big mega firms, this just is not it. I have to agree with those who are disappointed to see this post here.

By: RQH

RQH — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:12:22 +0000

I think it looks great, just like everything else Roman & Williams does. They’ve managed to use almost exclusively traditional American furniture and yet it still looks fresh, contemporary and not stuffy.

Decoration, and especially a boutique hotel’s, can afford to be quirky and whimsical because it’s temporary. (The average life of a hotel room’s decoration is 6 or 7 years) If you don’t like it you can wait it out, or maybe stay at the Holiday Inn instead if that’s more to your liking.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:59:38 +0000

this exact same thing has been done much better in berlin. much much better. nalbach und nalbach. in fact….so much better that its just not the same thing anymore.

By: ap

ap — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:16:27 +0000

My first thoughts exactly. Thats the problem when your design fee is based on how many pieces you sell. Undermines the integrity of good design and architecture.

By: David Basulto

David Basulto — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:06:41 +0000

@yeah, sorry?

@David,

The Ace Hotel has become a center for the innovation community in NY, and lots of them have really liked the design, as you can see on many blogs. So, why is there such a disconnection between what architects seem to think and what people really likes?

At ArchDaily we like to present a wide focus of projects, as we serve different types of professionals with different tastes/backgrounds/clients/etc.

By: James

James — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:38:58 +0000

Yes, please lets have more designs that cater to a wide middle ground, very inspiring. Opinions aside, while this type of interior has been done far better in places like Berlin (of which this seems to be a watered down version) you will find a lot of non-architects who really love this, and therein lies the point.

By: jean grey

jean grey — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:24:46 +0000

this is really corny…
totally pointless and uninspired

and its not about decorating vs not decorating
as in architecture its about relevance!

By: yeah

yeah — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:03:56 +0000

No – you don’t get the point. White, shiny box is not the only alternative to this … thing here. But I know it’s easier to argue when you set the opposite point to the extreme right?

There is a wide middle ground while creating an interesting hotel and neither a white box, nor a zany, fizz, post pop-art interior belong in it.

By: James

James — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:09:03 +0000

The negative comments here seem to miss the point, granted maybe this is better suited to the pages of Wallpaper magazine, but is relevant to architects nonetheless. Personally i HATE staying in hotels, faceless, corporate, soulless, and more often than not, mundane as hell. Obviously the concept was to create a trendy apartment style hotel, a hotel with a humanist touch; and for me they succeeded.

This might be shocking to some but turning a building into a generic intimidating white shiny box with some expensive furniture the average person won’t look at twice isn’t the only type of architecture out there, and it is not always appropriate.

(Better set of photos on the ace website by the way)

By: johncantrell

johncantrell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:52:52 +0000

The Ace Hotel, New York / Roman and Williams http://bit.ly/a4be7A

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:43:25 +0000

Isn’t this like 15 years behind? They’ve left the Eames chair out, but the Smeg fridge..? And quotes on the wall from 90′s Radiohead. Are they ahead of their time to be retro or is this the US version of the French shabby chic.. plain tacky. I’ll have the ottoman and the twig, please.