In the second annual Radical Innovation in Hospitality Awards competition, sponsored by the John Hardy Group and Hospitality Design (HD) magazine, an oil rig hotel & spa took top honors (and the $10,000 prize).

The winning design came from the Houston office of Morris Architects.

“The Rig is much like the ICEHOTEL. It’s that kind of unique experience. We were trying to create a hospitality experience that is unique and fully rounded, and interesting enough that people are interested in doing it. The work with the Rig is not to make it a one-liner, but to prove it as a serious proposition—really investigating it,” Douglas Oliver, the firm’s director of design, says.

Morris Architects estimates 4,000 oil rigs will be abandoned in the Gulf of Mexico within the century.

Source: Jetson Green and Hospitality Design

Senators Schumer, Durbin, Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) and others are introducing bills as part of the stimulus package to allow homeowners to have their mortgages reduced by a bankruptcy judge. The MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) oppose such “cram downs” arguing that they will destabilize the housing market!

According to the MBA, cram downs will jeopardize future loans since the lenders will need to ask for a high-risk premium to protect them from bankruptcy modification. Such premiums would be in the form of higher fees, interest and down payments. This argument ignores the fact that low house prices greatly reduce foreclosure rates. The MBA apparently wants a return to escalating house prices.

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