Sister City

The Ace Hotel New York, when it first opened, felt like an exercise in minimalism, bringing a vintage/salvage aesthetic and a slightly spartan approach to comforts to a hotel scene that was still obsessed with gloss and glamour. But for their second act, Atelier Ace, the hotel group’s in-house creative agency, has set out to show us what real minimalism looks like. They make it explicit, citing Finnish saunas and Japanese bento boxes as inspirations, which are visible in the interior design — and also John Cage’s silent(ish) composition 4′33″ , whose influence is perhaps more conceptual.