It’s not everyday someone can say they are working on their dream project. But that’s the case for hip hotelier Liz Lambert. What started as a 21-acre pasture in Marfa, Texas—a second home for West Texas-bred Lambert, who grew up spending time on her family’s cattle ranches in the area—is now El Cosmico, a nomadic, immersive, one-with-the-surroundings camping experience made up of vintage trailers, teepees, yurts, and multiple communal areas including a hammock grove. “I knew if I was going to do a place in Marfa, it had to relate to the outdoors, to the night sky,” she says. Since purchasing the property in 2006 and opening in 2009, she has slowly evolved the location with the help of San Antonio- and Austin-based architecture firm Lake Flato and Austin’s Design Build Adventure.
The former lawyer-turned-hotelier (she worked for the district attorney in Manhattan before moving home) says she happened upon her first hotel, the San José, previously a 1930s motor court, at the right time. Located in Austin’s now-hip South Congress area near downtown, in the late ’90s, the neighborhood and the hotel were “down and out. It was $30 a night, full of junkies, hookers, and people with a disability check,” she explains. “I was a little naïve and just knocked on the door to see if they would sell it. Then, I just figured it out as I went along,” she says. With “a lot of blood sweat and tears,” and the help of friends and family and Lake Flato, she renovated the 40-room bungalow-style property with rooms amongst courtyards into what would be the start of her eclectic yet thoughtful hotel collection that pushes the status quo.
Since 2000, she has grown organically, finding properties that speak to her. The Hotel Havana in San Antonio, for instance, had been a favorite of Lambert’s since she stayed there in the ’90s. When the owner was ready to sell, she jumped on the chance to take over the circa-1914 Mediterranean Revival building, where Lambert (she’s very hands-on in the process) and her team repurposed and reworked most of the original furniture in the 27 rooms and public spaces and reopened it in 2009.
Her attention to detail, authentic spaces, and cult following caught the eye of Standard International CEO Amar Lalvani, leading to the hotel company acquiring a 51 percent stake in Lambert’s creative vision in 2015. “We have a lot of the same DNA. We both approach this business as something more than just a place to lay your head,” she says. Lambert’s sought-after formula—much like the Standard culture that founder André Balazs created—is all about the programming and finding the right collaborators, whether employees or artists, she says.
Bunkhouse Group has since expanded to Mexico with the 32-room Hotel San Cristóbal on the Baja peninsula in Todos Santos. “It’s desert, it’s the ocean, and it’s still untouched to a certain degree, and it’s really beautiful,” she says of the area where she loves to ride dirt bikes. She infused the beachside hotel with pieces by Mexican artisans and fabricators—from bedspreads made by a mother and son team outside Oaxaca to the bold tile that repeats throughout the property. And after noticing the concrete floors in Todos Los Santos were stamped with a different design or relief, they repeated that treatment in many of the rooms. She also took over the management of the Austin Motel next door to the San José, preserving the community mainstay by imbuing the interiors with splashes of the original sign’s cherry red color. “We pay a lot of attention to what’s around the property, as well as the history of the property,” she says of her and her small in-house team’s process. “It is important to be in the place and walk the grounds and the neighborhood. Too many people design sight unseen.”
Still to come: the expansion of El Cosmico, with a pool, spa, and art spaces; the 89-room Hotel Magdalena in Austin (one of her largest to date), made up of five new but distinct buildings connected by walkways and courtyards; and a light redo of the Phoenix in San Francisco, which is a homecoming of sorts for Lambert as it was the first hotel of her mentor and friend, former Joie de Vivre founder Chip Conley. “When I first had the San José and I didn’t know what to do with it, I called him for advice and he actually called me back,” she says.
Lambert has her eye on Nashville and New Orleans, and a ski hotel is still on her bucket list. But in true Lambert form, don’t expect the expected. “People today are more interested in an experience—something new and different, and not knowing what they are going to find when they open a door.”
