ACE HOTEL REVIEW - CHICAGO, USA

Since opening its first property in Seattle in 1999, the Ace Hotel Group has steadily claimed strongholds in nine other major cities. The latest to join the ranks is Chicago, where the hotel stands within a newly constructed building – a first for the group.Located in the historic Fulton Market district, a hotbed of watering holes and restaurants in the West Loop, the 159-room property was designed by local firm GREC Architects. Its glass-and-concrete aesthetics nod to the New Bauhaus, while the preserved brick façade of a former cheese factory, on the building’s southern wing, helps anchor the new build in the listed neighbourhood.Once inside, the hotel’s fusion of past and present hits a sophisticated tone with interiors designed by Commune. Inspired by the city’s most famous architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, his buildings at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and other key Bauhaus émigrés, the firm used simple materials such as polished steel, brass, plywood and linoleum as the grounding elements of the space.