Roman Alonso

We interviewed Commune principal designer Roman Alonso for our Tablet10 magazine in connection with his work on the Ace Hotel & Swim Club;  here’s the full conversation, including the parts that didn’t make it into print.

Ace has their own style, but they find it difficult to put into words.

I’ve known those guys forever, so we kind of understood their genes. Their spaces in Seattle and Portland are all about equality, they’re all about democracy, value, with a lot of design. And it’s really urban in the way that it looks.

With the hotel in Palm Springs, obviously they wanted to create something that was more of a retreat. Something that fit well into the desert environment, and felt like a vacation. So the challenge is, how do you bring that urbanity to the desert, and still make it feel like Ace. Take their DNA and do something that fit well into the desert.

What were some of the concrete ways you found to do that?

The use of materials was very straightforward and basic. Which is something that we as a company really like as well. It’s part of our philosophy to use unfinished materials and leave them in their natural state. They also wanted to be very conscious of the environment. It’s not technically a green hotel, but, like us, they like to take those things into account. We wanted to use woods that were thoughtful, ecologically. We wanted to use finishes that were unharmful. We wanted to reclaim as much as possible.

Beginning with the architecture of the hotel: we really changed it as little as possible. We kept the structure, and moved some stuff around, created some suites. The hotel buildings, the layouts of the rooms really were not altered. We used the Howard Johnson’s layout. Which, by the way, was incredibly functional.

There are so many great old motels. It’s great to see someone preserving one, instead of just knocking it down.

We learned, in the process, just how well-designed these things are, in terms of motel function. Howard Johnson’s knew what they were doing. After a million hotels, they knew. What we did was make it more of an enjoyable experience. Less of a place where you just stop and rest, more of a place where you can hang out.

Which makes it a much more communal experience, which is something else that is very Ace. Some of their hotels have communal bathrooms, the restaurants have communal tables, their lobby is a communal space in Portland. So in Palm Springs, you have that patio, and it’s fairly private, but your neighbor upstairs is definitely part of the experience. It’s unique, and it’s not really for everyone. You’ve got to sort of be down with that.

Communal might be the best way to put it. A lot of gradations between public and private.

I think it’s part of the desert experience. We really wanted to stay away from the Palm Springs idea. We wanted to embrace the desert. We looked at camping. We looked at movies like M*A*S*H, and Seventies road movies. So it’s a little bit of a camping experience.

The canvas curtains in the rooms.

The canvas in the rooms is really something that we liked — it did drive home that camping feel, but also it helps with sound.

It’s the bones of a motel, but we added lots of layers to it. And the most exciting layer, for us, was the artisan layer. We were able to bring in all these artisans from California to contribute to the spaces. So to have somebody like Stan Bitters do those fireplaces, for example, is pretty special. It’s one of the largest commissions he’s had in thirty years.

And even in the rooms, all those wood stools, the little trunk stools, those are by Alma Allen, a sculptor out of Joshua Tree. And it was the first time he did something of that size as well. He had to turn basically two hundred of those stools. He also made the side tables that have the metal — — Those stools normally go for $2,000. So he was able to do it in a budget-conscious way, but it’s still his work.

And the same thing goes for all the kilims in the rooms. They’re all different. It’s a source that helps find them all. All the chairs in all the rooms are found. There’s a lot of vintage furniture in the project, and all of it that’s upholstered was reupholstered. All re-uphosltered in reclaimed Army fabrics, all Army-issued.

All the pool furniture too, all the shading, is reclaimed Army tent fabric.

It feels good to go to a place where you don’t recognize the furniture.

We bought all the vintage locally. So there’s no shipping, and also to help the businesses in the area. All the pool furniture, instead of having it made in China, which would have been a lot cheaper, we had it made in Palm Springs. Because of the shipping, because of the use of gasoline, and all that stuff. We just felt like, let’s help the local businesses, and also let’s save some oil.

It’s surprising that there are still people making that stuff locally.

And really well. People don’t realize, but there’s such great workmanship in California. There’s a great tradition of workmanship here because of the movie business. You can find somebody to make almost anything, really well. There are some businesses that are on their second or third generation making these things. So we’re big on that. We use as much hand-made product in our projects as possible, whether it’s a residential project or a commercial project.

What do you find to be the difference between designing for hospitality and for residential?

It’s fairly similar. It’s an experience that goes on and on. But hospitality is a finite experience. There’s an opening date. A residential goes on forever, pretty much. There are residential clients that we’ve had for five years and we’re still not finished. They sort of become a client for life.

With a hotel, you’ve got to open it at some point. Although, the Ace opened in May, and I go out there at least once a month, for pleasure. One of the things that attracted me about this project was having a place to go that I like. So I go at least once a month, and every time I go out there I’m working on something. There’s still a lot of things to finish and to make better. So this particular hotel project may be more like a residential project. It might go on forever. And those guys are family, they’re old friends of mine. So it is kind of like their home and my home.

It seems like a fun second home.

I travel a lot, and my business partner Pam, she’s traveled a great deal too. She used to be a production designer, she did commercials all over the world. So we have a list of likes and dislikes in a hotel, especially in a hotel room.

The hotel rooms at the Ace are really close to the perfect hotel rooms for us. Where we placed the outlets, how many outlets there were. How big that table is, how much surface space there is. How the bed felt. The height of the bed. All that stuff, this is what we would want the perfect hotel room to be.

You are your own focus group.

Yeah. So I feel really comfortable in that room. I really like it.

This is something where I have to give it to the Ace guys, and why I like their hotels. It’s a hotel that’s really friendly, and they make you really feel at home. You feel like you can do whatever you want, without having somebody on top of you every five minutes. That’s their idea of service, and that’s my idea of service too. They set it up so that you feel at home, and then they ask you to just feel at home. They don’t bring you the cable for your computer, you go to the lobby to get it. That’s what we would do at home. I kind of like that. I don’t like somebody asking me every five minutes if I need anything. I can pick up the phone, and if I need something I’m happy to go and pick it up. It’s something I like about the Ace hotels, and it’s something I don’t like about most hotels. Unless I want a Four Seasons experience, but it’s not something that I choose.