A unique hotel set to be built in the town of Marfa could be more at home on Mars than in West Texas.
El Cosmico already offers numerous accommodation options, such as Bushtec tents, yurts, tepees, and trailers. Now, this West Texas staple is moving to a new compound roughly three miles from its current location and upgrading to 3-D-printed structures.
The expansion of El Cosmico is the brainchild of hotelier and designer Liz Lambert, the visionary behind the original hotel. Collaborating with construction technology firm ICON and architecture firms Bjarke Ingels Group and Nelsen Partners, Lambert is set to bring her latest creation to life, harnessing the power of state-of-the-art 3D printing technology.
ICON, which boasts a contract with NASA to help build humanity’s first housing on the moon and Mars, will use its large-scale 3D printing expertise to transform a plot of land in West Texas into a scene that might not look out of place in space in one day.
“I didn’t even know how to picture it until I actually met Jason Ballard and the folks from ICON and went and watched the printers at work… It’s amazing to watch because it doesn’t care about how complicated the curves are or the machinations that the printer needs to go through. It’s just taking information from the software and then creating whatever you’ve been able to draw on CAD,” Lambert said, per Skift.
The move will see El Cosmico Hotel grow from its current 21-acre property on Marfa’s Highland Avenue to the 60-acre lot along Antelope Hills Road. Construction on the ambitious $50 million project is set to begin in August, with state filings showing plans for 100,000 square feet of new construction, including single-family homes, several amenity buildings, and hotel accommodations.
The new and improved El Cosmico will also house a spa, an arts and skills-building workshop, and a pool to cool off from the intense West Texas heat.
Interested in checking out El Cosmico? Dallas residents looking to enjoy this unique ground in Marfa will need to make the roughly seven-and-a-half-hour drive to the outer edges of West Texas. Unfortunately, however, you will have to be patient, as construction is not slated for completion until August 2026.