Leave it to Los Angeles–based Design, Bitches to balance the city’s penchant for reinvention with respect for its historic built environment. This past June, STILE, a boutique hotel housed within downtown L.A.’s United Artists building, opened to the public, featuring transformed interiors designed by the firm.
It was an exciting challenge. “I know the hotel, and I spent time here,” said RA Rudolph, the architect and principal in charge of the project, which marked Design, Bitches’ first foray into the hotel realm. (Rudolph and cofounder Catherine Johnson also run an outpost of their studio from San Jose, California.) “We loved this opportunity to do something different and to see what we could do with all these constraints,” they added, in reference to the ornate Spanish Gothic–style landmark’s extensive local lore as part of the Broadway Theater District.
The 13-story tower was originally built in 1927 by architects Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen as the United Artists film studio headquarters for cofounders Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith. The adjoining theater, designed by C. Howard Crane, has served as a movie palace, church, and live-music venue. The architecturally significant, maintenance-intensive property was touted as a key player in downtown L.A.’s revitalization when it operated as the Ace Hotel and the Theatre at Ace Hotel between 2014 and 2024, when it abruptly shuttered.
Enter Design, Bitches, which Seoul, South Korea–based hospitality company AJU Continuum charged with ushering the hotel’s core public spaces and 182 keys into a new era. STILE’s digital-forward operations model allowed the team to rethink the lobby. In lieu of the Ace’s oversize reception desk, a smaller table stands in a niche swathed in burgundy; the color is a nod to the theater curtains next door and is among Design, Bitches’ signature joyful moves. Nearby, guests and visitors have space to gather and linger on a Luva sofa by Herman Miller placed over an Armadillo Agra rug next to the Goodie Shop’s merchandise displays. Despite the property’s embrace of technology, a vintage boom-box installation, plus a Walkman and cassette lending library, celebrate the analog too.
Efficient rooms and suites are carpeted in dotted patterns that suggest dappled light and are outfitted largely with custom Douglas fir plywood furnishings and color-blocking components in burgundy, pink, warm green, and goldenrod. “Comfort was really important,” Rudolph told AN Interior. Bathroom surfaces and fixtures were retained, and the overall internal building layout remained. Design, Bitches, however, reconfigured a handful of larger suites into flexible accommodations furnished with a pair of twin beds, a king-size bed, and a sofa. Artwork by Xan Padron and Marin Vaan Zaal adds character. And elsewhere, the largest king suite, which features a private terrace, showcases original pieces by Maia Ruth Lee and Anna Kalachyan.
Other sensitively updated public areas include the gym and 13th-floor rooftop pool deck, where contemporary-spirited interventions juxtapose with the historic checkered stone floor and ornate Gothic-inspired tracery, which Design, Bitches left intact. The nature-informed color palette is especially pronounced here, with sunset-inspired pinks and terra-cotta that contrast with splashes of blue. Furnishings and accessories by RAD Furniture, Block Shop Textiles, Muuto, and Case, along with custom zellige tile–topped game tables, surround the gleaming pool. The “Jesus Saves” neon sign, a beloved holdover from the theater’s days as Los Angeles University Cathedral, still glows nearby.
STILE is another entry in the evolution of an urban neighborhood that’s witnessed many changes over the decades and is still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rudolph is hopeful that the tides are turning once again. “This hotel helps that ecosystem,” they said.
