Ace Hotel

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The Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs was a collaboration with design firm Commune to transform a 1960's Howard Johnson, Motor Inn into a laidback and free-spirited resort hotel. The Sonoran Desert setting, with its surrounding mountains, provided a backdrop for rethinking the "park in front-of your door" car-dominated lodging model so prevalent for the past 60 years in the desert southwest. The five-acre property includes wide landscaped pedestrian courts--where the parking once dominated now outdoor amenities lead to private entry-courts. A former Denney's with its classic '60 diner roofline was striped back to reveal its light-filled essence and re-branded as the laidback King's Highway. Since the completion in 2008 o2 has added an additional meeting building and expanded the bar and outdoor dining.