Ones to Watch: Ash NYC

Equal parts design firm, real-estate developer, and lifestyle think tank, this Brooklyn-based practice has a gift for revamping historic, often industrial spaces into seductive, of-the-moment environments. “We’re inspired by Belgian design and -architecture—places that are austere without being clinical,” says Ari S. Heckman, who heads Ash NYC with Will Cooper and Jonathan Minkoff. The studio’s signature style, marked by a cool simplicity and unexpected combinations of pedigreed objects, has been applied to offices and showrooms as well as residences. And last year Ash NYC added hotelier to its profile with the opening of the Dean, an acclaimed 52-room boutique property in Providence, Rhode Island, that is a catalyst for a new wave of urban revitalization there. “We didn’t quite know what we should have known, so we did things the way we wanted,” Heckman says. That enterprising attitude is what propels the firm, which is developing hotel projects in New Orleans and Detroit, a residential conversion of a Brooklyn factory, and a debut furniture collection.

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For more information go to ashnycom .