North America’s First Mass Timber Hotel Opens in Austin Texas

The first mass timber hotel to be constructed in North America has opened in Austin Texas. The Hotel Magdalena is located on land once owned by Willie Nelson and home to the Terrace Motor Hotel (the place to see and be seen at the time), is the latest from Bunkhouse Group, a Texas-based hospitality company. The Magdalena is an 89-room hotel that plays on Austin‘s music culture and love for lakeside living. Lake Flato partner David Lake worked with the Canadian company, Structure Craft, to make it all possible, ultimately choosing mass timber construction for its environmental sustainability and swift construction times. The use of this system shaved three months off of typical construction estimates. Mr. Lake commented that “Timber frame is an ecologically sound solution with glulam columns and beams and a cross-laminated timber deck spanning between. We chose this approach because the system is pre-fabricated and quickly erected in addition to being a low-embodied carbon and sustainable structural system.”