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