Hotel Saint George — Marfa, USA
![Exterior view of hotel](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d2CsDPYYUjWGRTg5zZndRf-415-80.jpg)
Located on the western edge of Texas, right on the intersection of routes 90 and 67, Marfa is as unlikely a town as any to be such an important centre for modern American art and culture. Founded in the 1880s as a railroad water-stop, it still feels a little like it’s on the way to somewhere else. In the 1970s, Donald Judd fell in love with the area, the flat horizon and scrubbed rawness of the high plains landscape no doubt fuelling his bent for minimalism, and artists have been coming here ever since.
There is more than a hint of this adventurous experimentation in the newly minted Hotel Saint George. The Houston-based architect Carlos Jimenez Studio has built a pleasingly rectangular, four-storey block in Marfa’s south-east corner, right on top of the footprint of an 1880s hotel of the same name. Its angular severity would have satisfied Judd, as would the industrial-chic interiors of polished concrete floors, mahogany and white steel trimmings.
The 55 rooms are dressed by Alice Cottrell in Austrian sheepskin rugs and distressed leather couches – all the better to take in the Wild West panorama of Chinati Peak and plateaus.
But it’s the public spaces that command the attention. The Marfa Book Company has set up home in the lobby that’s part book-store, part performance space and part concept store – a perfect partner to the outdoor pool, a fine dining restaurant, taco stand, art by Mark Flood and Jeff Elrod and, of all things, a farmer’s market.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
105 South Highland Avenue
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Embrace solitude at Folly Mojave, an off-grid desert retreat
Folly Mojave is a wilderness escape enveloped by hundreds of square miles of natural scenery and designed by LA-based architect Malek Alqadi
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Sandbourne Santa Monica heralds a ceramic oasis by the sea
Check into Sandbourne Santa Monica, a new hotel concept moments away from the city’s fabled pier and Venice Beach
By Carole Dixon Published
-
The Ritz-Carlton, Portland blends luxury design with the wilds of the Pacific Northwest
With architecture by GBD Architects and interiors by ROAM, the new Ritz-Carlton outpost brings the Oregon wilderness to downtown Portland
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Dine under a colossal Zaha Hadid sculpture at Elastika in Miami
Elastika opens its doors as a one-of-a-kind dining destination inside Miami Design District’s The Moore
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Scribner’s Catskill Lodge introduces funky rounded cabins
Scribner’s Catskill Lodge tapped design firm Post Company for 11 new dodecagonal cabins
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Famed steakhouse Beefbar opens an art deco-infused outpost in New York City
Beefbar’s first US location finds a home in an impressive 1920s Tribeca building, boasting interiors by Humbert & Poyet
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Bar Spero, in Washington DC, nods to the playful nature of Spanish cuisine
Bar Spero is a Spanish seafood bar and grill designed by Streetsense and led by chef Johnny Spero
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Southern Arizona sets the scene for a corking vineyard experience at Los Milics
Los Milics winery, designed by Chen + Suchart Studio, is set among vines at the foothills of the Mustang Mountains
By Sofia de la Cruz Published