We all know a hipster hotel when we see one — the reclaimed wood, repurposed materials, retro furniture, and a mustachioed hotel clerk who hands you a craft cocktail along with your old-fashioned room key at the front desk — which doubles as the lobby bar, of course.

These common themes recur at hotels across the country, and we have one wildly popular hotel chain to thank. Ace Hotels, born in Seattle in the late 1990s, largely pioneered the look and mindset, which plays out in everything from design elements to a shared reverence for the local, artisanal and sustainable. Seattle firm Dawson Design Associates has helped shape the aesthetic as the creative minds behind San Francisco’s Hotel Zephyr, Hotel Zeppelin and Hotel Zetta. (The z-naming is no accident: These properties are all owned by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and were granted their matching monikers by CEO Jon Bortz.)

Read the full article at sfchronicle.com