As the country becomes increasingly environmentally conscious, reducing our dependency on oil has been a hot topic. However, had it not been for our love affair with black crude, a local architect firm would never have stumbled upon their multi-billion dollar idea: converting offshore oil rigs into luxury hotels.
Houston-based Morris Architects took home first prize in a recent Radical Innovations In Design competition with their oil rig hotel concept. The concept, which takes the reuse/recycle mentality to an extreme, will incorporate collapsible cargo containers into the final design. The hotels would harness wind power produced by axis turbines located on site to power the facilities, making them completely self-sufficient entities. Due to the large number of oil rigs in the general vicinity, some of the properties could be located just a little more than a stone’s throw from Houston itself.
The design firm debated that converting decommissioned oil rigs into hotels was, by far, the best alternative. Generally when an oil rig is no longer in service, explosives are used to destroy the structure. This method is both costly and harmful to the environment. Morris Architects estimated that 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will be disposed of over the next one hundred years.
The design concept included every luxury amenity imaginable in the hotels, including casinos, ballrooms, spas, high-end boutiques, and fitness centers that would accommodate the proposed three hundred guest suites per property.
No mention was made, however, regarding how vulnerable these properties would be to hurricanes, which are common occurrences in the Gulf during the Atlantic Hurricane Season. Offshore oil rigs and platforms that are fully operational are frequently evacuated for weeks at a time during the threat of an approaching storm. As innovative as the idea sounds, the constant threat of damage and/or loss of revenue from the storms could sway potential investors toward other, more feasible projects in the future.
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