Atelier Ace has offered a first glimpse inside the new Ace Hotel Sydney, the chain’s first property in the Southern Hemisphere, which is set to debut in early 2022.
The hotel is housed in Surry Hills’ historic Tyne House brick factory — the site of one of Australia’s first ceramic kilns — and the 264 room property will feature the hallmarks the brand is well known for, including stylish guestrooms, a ground floor restaurant, bar and café in the hotel’s communal lobby and a restaurant and bar on the rooftop.
Ace Hotel Group President, Brad Wilson, said Ace Sydney will invite the “ready rhythm of Surry Hills inside” and the property will be “an active commons for culture, commerce, art and community”.
“Though its culture and character are all its own, we’ve always felt a strong affinity with Australia — its intrepid optimism and renegade spirit resonates with Ace’s roots on the Pacific Coast of America,” he said.
Wilson said the property has been designed by Flack Studio, led by acclaimed Melbourne-based Founder and Director, David Flack, and it will be one of the standout hotels in the global network, which includes locations in Seattle, Portland, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Chicago, Kyoto and Brooklyn.
“We love the country’s distinctive brand of modernism, particularly in the use of local organic materials, and were lucky enough to find a perfectly modernist partner in Flack Studio,” Wilson said.
“David’s eye for colour and space is completely singular — a dream design collaborator for our first hotel in Australia.”
According to Ace, the hotel is inspired by the rich history of Surry Hills and the warm, cinematic colour palette of the Australian landscape.
“The design of Ace Hotel Sydney acts as a call and response with the city’s past — superimposing its eras and evolutions in a contrast of natural textures and tones,” Atelier Ace says.
“From the razor gang wars and underground liquor trade of the 1920s and 1930s, the modernist art boon of the 1960s and through to the Gay Solidarity Group protests of the 1970s, the neighbourhood has long served as home to the most trailblazing and resilient voices of modern Australia — a culture coalesced from Surry Hills’ vibrant migrant communities.
“Flack Studio embraced organic materials to create spaces honest to this history — from the acoustic textural straw walls of the hotel’s guest rooms to the striking ochre red off-form concrete staircase in its lobby.
“A respect of craftsmanship is threaded throughout the building, with many of its furnishings, artworks and interior details created uniquely for this project.
“Guest room furniture, joinery and lighting have all been carefully custom designed by Flack Studio, with textile-adorned window seats designed to invite conversation in each space.”
Flack Studio was included in Vogue Living’s ‘Top 50’ in 2021 and in Architectural Digest Germany’s ‘Top 100’ in 2020 and David said Ace Hotel Sydney was an exciting project to work on.
“Surry Hills has been home to so many culturally important movements and people, and has always been a home for creatives and migrating cultures,” he said.
“We wanted to preserve the creative, slightly renegade energy of the space since its origins as one of Australia’s early brickworks.
“We were committed to creating a warm space that brought together Australia’s cultural history with Ace’s unique, community cultivating approach to hospitality.”
Next year will be an significant one for Atelier Ace, with the company also making its debut in Canada with the Ace Hotel Toronto in early 2022.