Marfa-inspired, 3D-printed amphitheater coming to Long Center

A piece of Marfa is coming to Austin, in time for South by Southwest, in the form of an amphitheater inspired by Austin hotelier Liz Lambert’s latest vision of El Cosmico, her nomadic hotel, campground and attraction in Marfa.

The project is being built as a partnership among Lambert, architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group and Icon, which is an Austin-based, 3D-printing construction company. The project at the Long Center for the Performing Arts is considered a celebration of an upcoming project the groups will be building in Marfa ― the "New El Cosmico," a new rendition of Lambert's El Cosmico project in the art-centric town of Marfa. Both projects are designed with 3D-printing technology in mind and will be printed by Icon.

The 3D-printed performance pavilion stage will make its debut at SXSW this year and will be the location where Icon plans to host a special event with live music, food trucks and refreshments 3:30 p.m. March 15. Icon said the amphitheater, which is a single sculptural piece designed to serve as a landmark and gathering space, is a gift to the city and the Long Center. It will take two weeks to print.

This marks the fifth year since Icon unveiled the first permitted 3D-printed house in the world, a 350-square-foot home in East Austin, during SXSW in 2018. Last year the company showcased “House Zero,” also in East Austin, a more than 2,000-square-foot house with a separate 350-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom accessory dwelling. Icon CEO Jason Ballard views 3D printing as having the potential to revolutionize housing by offering versatility, range, speed and lower costs compared with traditional construction.

More:At SXSW, Austin-based Icon shows the possibilities for 3D-printed homes

The Austin amphitheater project complements and draws inspiration from El Cosmico, which was first designed in 2006. The original El Cosmico turned a 21-acre plot of land in Marfa into a campground hotel with trailers, tents, yurts and wood-fired hot tubs. As part of the partnership, Lambert and the companies also are designing and reimagining a 3D-printed expansion of El Cosmico, which will grow and relocate to a 65-acre Marfa property.

More:NASA picks Austin-based Icon to build 3D-printed structures on the moon

The Marfa project is expected to break ground in 2024 but in the meantime, Ballard said the pavilion at the Long Center will give people “a little appetizer” of the new El Cosmico in Marfa, while also connecting to Lambert’s Austin roots designing hotels in Austin. 

“Liz (Lambert) started her career here in Austin, and branched out in West Texas, and other places, and now it is re-pollinating back into Austin,” Ballard said. “It's just an amazing project to contribute to the history of Austin into the creative culture of Austin.”

Icon is no stranger to bold projects. The company already has printed dozens of homes and other projects, including a simulated Mars habitat for NASA and barracks for the military, and is working on technology that would allow it to 3D-print structures on the moon.

But the two-part El Cosmico project brings two new firsts for the company. Ballard said the Austin project will be the first 3D-printed amphitheater pavilion music venue in the world. El Cosmico in Marfa will also be the first hotel the company has printed.

“When you see the pavilion or amphitheater that we've built, and you see the architecture that will be getting built to do El Cosmico, you'll see that they're very much related,” Ballard said. “It has a nice symmetry to it.”

Ballard said the amphitheater is going to feel "feel very funky and weird and Austin and Liz Lambert," while also keeping a vibrant, alive and creative feel, which he considers key elements of any good amphitheater.

"We hope Austin views it as a gift,” Ballard said. “And that it sparks interest and curiosity for those people who have not experienced El Cosmico or Marfa, and ignites that curiosity and even for those people who have. … I hope it makes everyone want to follow along in the creative journey in the dynamic evolution of the place.”

More:Austin startup Icon plans development of 3D-printed homes in area

What does this new amphitheater mean for Austin?

The amphitheater is designed to reflect the same design values and will be a permanent addition to the Long Center and offer additional outdoor venue space for the organization. The Long Center is owned by the city but managed by a nonprofit.

Bobby Garza, Long Center vice president of programs and community outreach, said the new venue provides an opportunity for the arts center to show what’s possible with good partnerships, technology and the right Austin-based companies coming together. A venue such as the new amphitheater helps give the center the needed infrastructure.

Garza hopes the new stage will give smaller nonprofits a chance to produce works at the world-class venue. The space will be able to host about 1,000 people at a show.

"I think we see a lot of opportunity just to create really low, low barrier to entry entertainment on a really amazing-looking structure," he said. 

During the early days of the pandemic, the Long Center began hosting outdoor events like the Drop-In, where artists perform family-friendly outdoor shows. But the Long Center discovered that with the infrastructure build-out required for each event, the cash required to have shows for smaller organizations was too much, and it could be difficult for folks just starting out.

Garza said incorporating the amphitheater into the Long Center’s offerings makes the financial side more efficient and brings down barriers to entry.

"If we can take one of those barriers off the table and say, 'Hey, if you want to have a children's performance in the middle of the day, you don't need a stage any longer because there's one that's there permanently,'" he said. 

What was the design inspiration?

The company will break ground on the Marfa counterpart in 2024 and is designed to celebrate creative culture and minimalism. The project will showcase new architectural designs, including domes, vaults, arches and parabolic forms, and will give the new El Cosmico guest units, programming, a pool and communal facilities. 

Ballard said the designs used in the projects are only possible through 3D printing. The company uses its own Vulcan printers for its projects, which print the designs layer by layer.

Lambert’s "visions are very funky and creative and off the beaten path and living in dynamic that it took something like a 3D-printer to like give full expression to her dream and the things that she wanted to exist in the world,” Ballard said. 

In a statement, Lambert said for many years she had a vision for the evolution of El Cosmico and wanted to add to the experience by adding multiple spaces for guests and locals including a pool, hammam, and space for arts and skills-building workshops.

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“In collaborating with the revolutionary thinkers at BIG and ICON, not only do I get to fulfill this dream, but we get to do it using this incredible 3D-printing technology that marries the oldest principles of raw earth-based building with a futuristic technology that works more quickly, sustainably and efficiently than modern construction,” Lambert said. “What’s more, the innovation and beauty of the types of structures we can build extends far beyond the box. It’s fitting that ICON has a contract with NASA to build the first dwellings on the moon and on Mars. I’m excited that we get to explore their incredible work right here in our own little cosmic landscape under the stars in far West Texas.”

For Ballard, who along with his family owns property and has spent extensive time in West Texas, getting to work on a project in Marfa with Lambert is personal, and he said the Icon team has been working to make sure they understand “what makes West Texas (and Marfa) work as both a cowboy, agricultural town and center of arts and creative energy.” The company spent time visiting iconic sites in Marfa, stayed in El Cosmico and met with Rainer Judd, the daughter of Donald Judd, the artist who helped put Marfa on the map.

“Part of that was developing very specific architectural forms and a design language that expressed El Cosmico and Donald Judd, and expressed West Texas and Marfa,” Ballard said. “We then took that architectural language and those design forms and expression as a music venue.”