volante:
usa
Cheeky in Palm Springs
Stanley Moss checks out the newly
opened Ace Hotel & Swim Club
in Palm Springs, Calif., and finds that its spot on for the
modern traveller who doesnt mind a bit of irreverence
photographed by the author
Set on a backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains, the hotel makes
the most of its arid palm-lined location. Some ground-floor rooms
have their own private patios, which once were parking spots for
the motor inn of yore.
Minimalism and rusticity, with indigenous vegetation.
Bikes parked outside the reception area, free for the use of guests.
Salt water pool, one of the few in Palm Springs.
Aces restaurant used to be a Dennys, and the architects
have restored the original details, like the terrazzo floor. You
can get a perfect espresso, and inspired nouveau diner cuisineserved
anywhere on the property.
Chilaquiles for breakfast anyone?
|
Super-comfy beds, reading lights that work, and contemporary photography
attached to the wall by clips.
Not your usual mini-bar, with serious liquor brands in generous
quantities. Try not to pig out on the eclectic munchies.
Not your usual stuffy, hard-to-read card key here. Aces sense
of fun and style is all in the details.
Aero Saarinen, are you listening? Typical room chair.
Poolside chair. Looks dangerous, but actually quite comfortable.
LUCIRE RECENTLY HAD
the opportunity to visit the newly-opened Ace Hotel & Swim Club
in Palm Springs, Calif. The latest offering from the cool four-property
Seattle-based chain, Ace caters to the young at heart, with a value-driven
ultra-friendly brand persona, grounded in modernist design, balanced
with hip, cheeky irreverence. You cant help but love the concept,
which endeavours to embrace everyone, while addressing the shift
in the changing profile of the leisure traveller.
For openers, this property is both family and
pet-friendly, but you encounter everyone from singles toting backpacks,
pierced and tattooed style-hounds, grey hairs and twenty-something
families with kids in chest carriers.
Set at the foot of the dramatic San Jacinto Mountains,
the property seamlessly regenerated from the classic Westward Ho
Motel designed in the 1960s, which was a fixture of Palm Springs
for over two decades. The property later became a Holiday Inn, but
any resemblance which remains is purely unintentional. Parking spots
which once girdled the minimalist buildings have been transformed
into private patios, some with working fire pits. Upstairs rooms
feature sundecks with giant canvas-covered cushions. Aces
singular design style is present everywhere in spacious lodgings,
from slatted wall treatments and woven hemp wall-coverings, reminsicent
of rustic camps, and funky furniture choices like the formed-wood
seats which might have walked out of a Danish Modern catalog. Even
the Rudys No. 3 body wash is up-to-the-minute groovy. Its
a feast designed to tantalize all the senses.
Best of all, theres a spirit of fun, and
a love of the outdoors evident here. Though the property only opened
its doors four weeks ago, you can already sense the active, naturalistic
lifestyle it promotes, set to a great soundtrack, casual, comfy
and devoted to letting the good times roll.
Ace Hotel &
Swim Club
701 East Palm Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92264
USA
Telephone 1 760 325-9900
Stanley Moss is travel editor of Lucire.
Add
to Del.icio.us | Digg
it | Add
to Facebook
|