If you’ve ever been to an Ace Hotel, you’d absolutely remember your stay. The boutique hotel mini-chain, which counts seven in total, is noted worldwide for its eclectic and (at times) overwhelmingly artisanal aesthetic. Quotes on the wall, the stairs and elevators remind you at every turn that you’re not just in a hotel, but rather an experience — it is a genuine change from every other hotel available in the cities where Ace Hotels are located. Those purposefully inoffensive hotels, once staid in “luxury,” soon became stuffy and boring in comparison.
Alex Calderwood opened the first Ace Hotel in 1997 in Seattle with some help from friends and using materials that others might have deemed unusable: salvaged wood and iron and refurbished Prohibition-era bars soon became the norm, and by 2007, the hotelier opened a second location in the burgeoning hipster mecca of Portland, Ore. That location, combined with the hip-kid influx the city was experiencing, made the Ace Hotel the place to stay. Word spread. Calderwood was able to open up five more locations, including the London hotel in Shoreditch, where he was found dead on Thursday.
Read more: LAURA K. FURGIONE, RACIST WEATHER WOMAN IMPLICATED IN NEW LOIS LERNER CHINA SPY SCANDAL
There has been no word on how Calderwood died, but it’s suspected that drugs played a part. Calderwood had said in a 2011 interview with the New York Times that he’d been sober for quite a while. “I am very proud of my sobriety … You get to a certain age, and you get to a certain point, where you realize this is just, like, dragging me down. It’s not fun anymore. I’m not enjoying it,” he said.
Calderwood was most certainly an enigmatic figure in the world of hotels, choosing to eschew the more formal suit and tie in favor of a much more disheveled rocker image. The hotel’s name, too, was inspired by this dichotomy between high-brow and low-brow culture: “In a deck of cards the ace is both high and low. We chose it because we wanted the brand to appeal to every sort of traveller,” he had said in one of his many interviews. He was most certainly an excellent promoter, making each Ace location the coolest place to stay in town.
Read more: WILD NASDAQ LAWYER EDWARD KNIGHT VOWS TO NUKE SEC CHAIR MARY JO WHITE
Ace Hotel has not given a full statement, although a post on its Tumblr states:
Yesterday Alex Calderwood passed away.
Alex was our teacher, mentor, guru and most importantly our dear friend.
We will miss him.
Ryan Bukstein, the hotel chain’s public relations manager, wrote to British newspaper The Mail on Sunday:
“His humility, spirit of collaboration and tireless work ethic has influenced our family at Atelier Ace and creatives across the globe. We all plan to continue moving forward with the ideals Alex championed so naturally.”
2014 was due to be a big year for Calderwood, with two more locations expected to open in the coming months: Panama City and Los Angeles. He is survived by his parents, two sisters and a brother.
