When Ari S. Heckman, Jonathan Minkoff, and Will Cooper, of ASH NYC, turned a landmarked Providence, Rhode Island, strip club and brothel into a stylish hotel called The Dean, they not only got the design world’s attention, they established a model that could be as Cooper puts it- “redesigned and repeated” across the country.


In 2018, they transformed the historic Wurlitzer Building in downtown Detroit into The Siren and a 19th-century church in New Orleans into Hôtel Peter & Paul. But that’s not all. The firm also designs residential interiors and furniture and runs a luxury staging business. “The building, the space, and the location are the foundation of our design work,” says Cooper. “Each project evolves from that point.”


