The World's Coolest Hotel Chain Finally Lands in Brooklyn

After buzzy openings in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, and even Kyoto, one of the world's coolest hotel chains has finally landed in what is, arguably, the epicenter of cool: Brooklyn.

The popular Ace Hotel Group is nearing completion of its second New York City location near Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn. The hotel, set to open this summer—perfectly timed to the city's post-pandemic reopening—is only the second hotel designed from the ground up by the hotel group, the other being the Ace Hotel Chicago.

The new building was constructed with longtime collaborators Roman and Williams, who designed both the brutalist-inspired facade of the building and the interiors. With 287 rooms, the hotel is situated on the border of downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill, giving the property a diverse mix of commercial and residential neighbors—a location that Brad Wilson, president of Ace Hotel Group, praised as "a geographical Venn diagram of intersecting energies."

"We’ve been building toward Ace Brooklyn for years," Wilson explained. "The entire city has reimagined itself several times over since we started. That’s exactly the spirit we’ve worked to mirror in every corner of our new home—the inexhaustible ingenuity that stands as the borough’s only constant. We’re lucky enough to have landed at the junction of so many rich and inspiring neighborhoods and hope to provide a new and inviting sense of place for our guests and neighbors to call home."

The hotel features a public lobby with communal work tables and a large-scale installation by artist Stan Bitters and a large indoor garden with a double-sided fireplace and sawtooth skylight. Much like the brand's other locations, the space will also include a bar and restaurant, though no word yet if those will be open when the hotel launches.

"We chose to embrace a governing principle of purity and artistic spirit in the building’s facade and the spaces within. We employed a philosophy of primitive modernism holistically across the project," said Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, the principals behind Roman and Williams. "This highly artistic approach drove us to use construction methods and materials with honesty. This is evident in everything you touch and see. This undecorated and tactile spirit expresses a radical transparency in its approach to the design of Ace Brooklyn."

The guest rooms include floor-to-ceiling windows with original artwork by local fiber and textile artists—with some higher-floor rooms offering views of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Statue of Liberty.

The hotel is now accepting bookings and hopes to go live by early summer.