ASH NYC co-founder Ari Heckman explains how The Siren Hotel recalls Detroit's glamorous past in this video produced by Dezeen for the AHEAD Awards.
Design development firm ASH NYC overhauled a derelict historical building in downtown Detroit with the help of Quinn Evans Architects to create The Siren Hotel.
The property was awarded the title of Hotel of the Year at last night's AHEAD Americas hospitality awards, which were held at the Faena Forum in Miami.
The Siren Hotel in Detroit was named Hotel of the Year at this year's AHEAD Americas awards
According to Heckman, the hotel avoids the post-industrial aesthetics that have come to be associated with Detroit, instead referencing the city's early 20th-century grandeur.
"One of our goals when we were conceptualising the hotel was to harken back to the grand hotels of Detroit of the turn of the century," he says in the video, which was shot by Dezeen at ASH NYC's Brooklyn office. Design development firm ASH NYC renovated the derelict Wurlitzer building to create the hotel
The hotel occupies the former headquarters of organ manufacturer Wurlitzer, designed by local architect Robert Finn in 1926 and located just off the city's Grand Circus.
Heckman stated that ASH NYC's purchase of the building effectively saved it from being knocked down.
"When we found the building, it was essentially collapsing from the top down," he said. "If we hadn't bought the building when we did and started the immediate stabil...