Made-in-America Design Brand Shinola Launches its First Hotel in Detroit

Luxury watchmaker Shinola ventures into hospitality with a 129-room property that engages with the local community.

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Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit is one of the city’s most iconic roads—purportedly, in 1909 the first mile of concrete highway in the world was built here—rich with automotive milestones and strewn with cultural institutions. Propelling this thoroughfare into a new era is the Shinola Hotel, a partnership between the namesake retailer and local real estate firm Bedrock, operated by Mac&Lo.

Awash in blue, the prominent "living room" is not just a social hangout for Shinola Hotel guests, but the downtown Detroit community.

Nicole Franzen

Shinola, known for its hand-assembled products spanning bicycles and audio equipment, is a proud Detroit company with a factory devoted to timepieces and leather inside the nearby A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education. Shinola Hotel, designed by New York–based Gachot Studios with architecture by local firm Kraemer Design Group, broadens this handcrafted narrative.

If they aren’t at the cocktail-fueled Evening Bar, chances are guests are hanging out in the "living room"—at least until the beer hall The Brakeman and fried chicken joint Penny Red are open.

Nicole Franzen

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A fireplace instills the Shinola Hotel with a sense of coziness and intimacy amid a high-energy atmosphere.

Nicole Franzen

A motley assortment of contemporary, local and international art curated by the Detroit gallery Library Street Collective enlivens the hotel.

Nicole Franzen

"Since establishing the brand in 2011, we always had the vision of designing a space that was an extension of Shinola," says creative director Daniel Caudill. "We wanted people to be able to fully immerse themselves in the sight and smell of Shinola and felt the best way to accomplish this was through a hotel."

Celebrating the city’s past, Shinola Hotel unites a duo of reimagined historic structures: the circa-1915 T.B. Rayl Co. hardware and sporting goods store, adorned in terra-cotta; and the limestone-clad Singer Building, constructed in 1936 for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. These two classics meld with a trifecta of new annexes.

Throughout, Gachot Studios aimed for a homey, simple approach to design.

Nicole Franzen

Oversized windows forge a connection with downtown Detroit.

Nicole Franzen

Shop the Look

Shinola Runwell Clock

This 14" Runwell Wall Clock draws from the signature details of our flagship timepiece: a matte black dial, raised Arabic indices in cream and lume-filled hands all wrapped up in a durable, matte black powder coat casing. Like many Shinola watches, the Runwell Wall Clock is built in the United States with U.S. and imported parts and features an iconic caseback plate with an individualized serial number.

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Shinola Sketch Book

This American-made, hard linen sketch book is Smyth Sewn and beautifully formulated with a 100lb weight paper. Manufactured in the United States from all US-sourced materials including acid-free paper from sustainably managed American forests. Includes elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket. NOTE TO ARTISTS: Our sketch books are designed to work wonderfully with charcoal, graphite, Conte crayon, wax crayons, pastels, colored pencil and any other dry or semi-dry mediums. Some calligraphy nibs may be used as well for dry point techniques and possibly broad stroke watercolor or markers. Please note, media using brushes saturated with water acrylics or oils may compromise the surface of the sheet and cause waviness. 100% Sourced and Manufactured in America. Photo courtesy of Shinola

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Christine Gachot, partner at Gachot Studios, describes the hotel’s sensibility as home-like, flaunting a simple palette and residential-grade fabrics. "The public spaces have concrete floors with a custom brass inlay, while the walls are done in a softly textured plaster. We tried to be respectful of the original architecture, even recreating the terra-cotta facade detail in a cast-plaster on the events ceiling," she explains.

The muted guest room palette makes way for white oak subtly trimmed in Shinola blue.

Nicole Franzen

A cheerful striped blanket is among the custom Shinola features in guest rooms.

Nicole Franzen

Shinola’s Runwell turntables add a touch of retro intrigue.

Nicole Franzen

The animated "living room," the heart of the property for both guests and locals, paves the way to guest rooms. Laid out in over 50 different configurations for a personalized feel, they feature white American oak flooring and wall panelling trimmed in signature Shinola blue. Fittingly, Shinola goods such as Runwell desk clocks, striped alpaca blankets, and leather throw pillows also grace guest rooms.

Bathrooms incorporate custom glazed tile and Imperial Danby stone quarried in Vermont.

Nicole Franzen

Gleaming, warm baths feature products inspired by T.B. Rayl’s, one of the building’s previous occupants.

Nicole Franzen

An ode to Thomas Parker, one of Detroit’s first black landowners, the restaurant-and retail-lined pedestrian corridor Parker’s Alley attracts crowds with thriving Detroit businesses. Clothing store Good Neighbor and juice bar Drought play nice with global brands like Madewell and Le Labo. Chef Andrew Carmellini of New York’s NoHo Hospitality Group has assembled a disparate collection of food and beverage establishments, including the midcentury-inspired, Italian restaurant San Morello.

In the restaurant San Morello, a palette of soft brown, white, and blue is amplified by soaring window panels.

Nicole Franzen

"We wanted to get people out and walking around downtown Detroit," says Gachot. "Connecting the property to the city in interesting ways will give guests a sense of discovery."