The curtain goes up on the Ace Hotel & Swim Club Athens, a new gem by Atelier Ace on the Athenian Riviera. Designed in Glyfada by French architecture and interiors firm ciguë, the 120-room hotel further expands Ace’s global presence adding to recent openings in Kyoto, Brooklyn, Sydney and Toronto.

The portfolio of the new hotel is rich, very rich, boasting a welcoming public lobby, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar on the ground floor open all day, a restaurant and lounge on the roof. Added to all this is a full calendar of artistic events and even its own exhibition space. Ciguë, maintaining the classic 70s coastal resort-style façade of the previous Fenix Hotel, was able to perfectly harmonize the brutalist style of the existing structure with the naturalistic inclination of typical Greek modernism and the relaxed charm of poolside culture. From the rooftop of the Ace Hotel & Swim Club Athens guests can enjoy breathtaking views of the sea and mountains, while the cantilevered Sea Resort-style balconies seem specially designed to welcome the legendary Greek light and radiate it into the rooms, each enriched with details artistic items such as custom-made bedspreads by Greek-Egyptian designer Salma Barakat and Ace’s signature furnishings, such as acoustic guitars and record players.

Finally, the hotel’s artistic program deserves a separate chapter, supported by the curators Matthieu Prat and Aliki Lampropoulos in collaboration with Mare Studio: it will stage a taste of the dynamic contemporary Athenian art scene, thanks to works commissioned from both established and emerging artists engaged in various disciplines, including sculpture, murals, tapestries, painting and drawing.