Ten Eyck garden beckons at Thunderbird Hotel in Marfa

March 25, 2012


On our way home from Big Bend last weekend, we cruised through Marfa for lunch and a quick look around town. When we spotted the Thunderbird Hotel’s Capri Lounge, an event space and former Army storage hangar, we stopped to tour the Christy Ten Eyck-designed garden surrounding it.

The garden combines minimalist, salvaged-industrial architecture with native plants including yucca, bur oak, agarita, agave, Texas mountain laurel, and grama and other grasses. Take a look at this picture…


…and compare it to this one. This is Ten Eyck’s personal garden in Austin. See any similarities? Smaller scale, softened by lusher vegetation, but recognizable, no? I love this water feature and was thrilled to see a larger version (minus the negative edge) in the Marfa garden.


Back to Marfa, where gabion walls shelter and define the large gathering space just outside the doors.


Shimmery globes of Yucca rostrata anchor a raised bed behind a low concrete wall that functions as additional seating.


Boulders protect an island of native plants under a young shade tree.


Agave (neomexicana?), agarita in bloom, and a tawny grass combine for a dynamic pocket garden.


Close-up of the agarita


I could imagine sitting here under the stars, listening to a band play.


There’s plenty of room for dancing too.


Heading to the rear garden, past the rectangular pool…


…you enter a more densely planted space—a man-made savannah punctuated by small trees and divided into several intimate rooms…


…each with its own Corten fire pit.


Around some you’d need to stand, as no seats are provided.


Around others you’d be able to sit, council-ring style, on large, flat boulders. Wouldn’t this be a great design for a sunny back yard in Austin?


Across the street, by the hotel store, stood an ocotillo fence, which fascinated me after all the ocotillo we’d seen blooming in Big Bend.


An old hotel sign…


…and colorful bikes for rent added their own laid-back charm to the scene.


We didn’t stay long enough to get a good sense of Marfa, which from an Austin perspective seems our West Texas sister city, only smaller, artier, and somehow more hip (probably too hip for me and my family). But I did really enjoy seeing this garden and can imagine something similar working for us here in Central Texas.

For a look back at our visit to Terlingua and the Starlight Theater, click here.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

18 responses to “Ten Eyck garden beckons at Thunderbird Hotel in Marfa”

  1. jenny says:

    I would have to admit that I am not head-over-heels on this design. It has an untidy appearance, far more untidy than the desert itself. (Hark who is talking) The ocotillo fence is nice. I have often seen fences in Baja where they use the same and the sticks start growing. Was there any sign of life?

    There was no sign of life in the ocotillo fence, but maybe it was too early in the season? Surprisingly, there was no sign of life in many of the young trees in the garden (the bare ones). It had been in the low 80s and seemed plenty warm enough for spring to have stirred them to life, so I wondered if the drought had killed off some of the trees. Or maybe things just get going later in the desert. What I noticed was that the fall-blooming grasses had not been cut back yet, but maybe they just do it later out there. As for untidiness, do you think it’s just that the grasses needed a good cut-back? It’s a much more lushly planted garden than a true desert garden, after all. —Pam

  2. I think I agree with Jenny. The garden looks a bit untidy. But, you could be right…it’s just the grasses that need to be cut back. Maybe when they are more green, it looks different.

    I did think about your comment about a gabion wall you’d seen in Seattle, last summer. That it wouldn’t work down here…scorpions and snakes and all. I would think that just might be a special concern out there.

    Thanks for the tour. It’s always good to see gardens.

    Gabion walls do create animal habitat. I wouldn’t sit right next to one in the desert—or even in Austin—because of the possibility of snakes and scorpions. But as a design feature they are interesting and probably low-cost. —Pam

  3. I love this, LOVE IT! Beautiful. Those Yucca rostrata are to die for and the Octillo fence makes such a statement. The “messiness” of the grasses just seems to add to the overall feel with the green punctuation of the trees and then of course the Agave.

    I thought of you while I was snapping photos, Loree, knowing how much you would like this style of garden—and the plants. I hope you get a chance to visit Marfa one day. (By the way, I just visited Peckerwood Garden in Hempstead, Texas, this weekend, and you would go bonkers over the dry gardens there. Add it to your must-see list—by appointment only.) —Pam

  4. Nice review. Good stuff, including the gabion and concrete walls-Y. rostrata. I must make a trip to check out this in closer detail…with luck, w/ Christy herself:-) Though my lack of skinny jeans or big glasses will not help my rep as more hipster-than-thou… Neat photo angles! And next to the Agarita or Algerita (?) it is Agave neomexicana indeed.

    RE looks – the Capri (?) used better massing of grasses and plants, and with more native species, than most attempts in Abq or esp Fanta Se at such things. RE lack of growth – Marfa (like Abq) is near 5000′ elevation, so barely entering spring. Ocotillos will flower and grow at least a few weeks later there than in Presidio or Lajitas (2500′ or lower). A few 80F days isolated w/ frosty nights will need a steady period of 40-50F lows for a few weeks to see growth one sees at similar temperatures in other places. Last *avg* last spring frost date is like Abq…4/15?

    Sorry about the blog post posing as a comment, but since I’m from a similar place, I hope that added some helpful info.

    Very helpful indeed, David! I was hoping my desert gardening friend would have time to comment with his expertise. I should not be surprised that spring is so much later in coming there, but I confess I still am. It being the desert and quite warm while we were there, it felt like spring growth should be showing. But that shows my inexperience with altitude. Again, thanks for the info. —Pam

  5. Lea says:

    Thanks for the tour!
    Lovely place with such beautiful blue skies!
    Happy Monday!
    Lea
    Lea’s Menagerie

    And to you, Lea! —Pam

  6. It is a well-designed garden that would work well for events. It lacks the personal touches present in the Austin garden and that’s to be expected. At first I thought it looked neglected too, but David’s comments made sense.

    Visitors from snow country experience the same thing when they visit San Antonio in late winter. It is warm to them but nothing is blooming and things haven’t been cut back so they complain about lack of blooms and green in public spaces.

    It’s interesting to hear that San Antonio surprises visitors too with a later spring than expected. Yep, when it’s warm, we sometimes expect the gardens to be a bit farther along than they normally are. —Pam

  7. Jean says:

    Pam, is that a lap pool or a water feature at the motel? Sure looks inviting. I confess that I’m probably not cool enough or rich enough to live in Marfa.

    Jean, it’s a water feature, not a swimming pool. And this isn’t actually the hotel itself but a rentable venue (for weddings, reunions, etc.) across the street that’s owned by the Thunderbird. —Pam

  8. Cheryl says:

    I LOVE Ten Eyck’s work and hadn’t seen photos of this site before. Thanks for sharing, Pam!

    My pleasure, Cheryl. —Pam

  9. Very different and great to see something a bit unusual to those of us in the southeast.

    Yes, it’s very different from what I saw on my travels to your part of the country last summer, Freda. I’m glad you enjoyed the virtual tour. —Pam

  10. Kelsey says:

    Hi! I love Ten Eyck designs! I actually was able to attend the wonderful presentation she did for local gardeners a couple of years ago in Marfa. She is fantastic to meet! On the Capri for some reason right after the design was installed the whole property was left to sit for what seems like a year or two. In that time things really looked bad and untidy. I realize the owner has many other projects so the Capri may have just been put on the back burner for a while. I have been to a party there at night and it is transformed at night! Beautiful!

    I am hoping we will get to see more photos of Ten Eyck’s personal garden. In some magazine it said she had turned the front to a vegetable garden.

    Love your blog!!
    Kelsey

    Thanks for the local information, Kelsey! If you’d like to see more pics of Ten Eyck’s own Austin garden, just click on this link. I toured her garden last spring and will be seeing it again this fall on the Austin Open Days tour. She does indeed have a large vegetable plot in her front garden, but most of the yard is devoted to a shady, native-plant garden. —Pam

  11. Yael says:

    Pam, I really like this garden and the grasses. I especially like the ocotillo fence. Yael

    Isn’t it cool? I hear that ocotillo fences can sometimes take root and become a living fence. —Pam

  12. Denise says:

    I like this work too, which shows savvy, smart cooperation with the extreme heat and drought I’m learning you deal with in Texas. Hopefully when the trees mature there’ll be more shade.

    I think most of the action in Marfa happens after sundown or in the winter months. But yes, the trees will add some nice shade someday. —Pam

  13. Kelsey says:

    Hi there,

    Great piece on Thunderbird! However, Liz Lambert does not own it (you might be thinking of El Cosmico instead). It is owned by Bob Harris (http://thunderbirdmarfa.com/about/).

    Cheers!

    Kelsey

    Gah! Right you are, Kelsey—Austin hotelier Liz Lambert does not own Marfa’s Thunderbird but El Cosmico. I don’t know how I got confused on that point, although the Thunderbird does kind of look like her style. In any event, thank you for pointing out my error. I’ve corrected the text. —Pam

  14. RobinL says:

    The arid, desert gardens of your area are so foreign to me, but that’s why I enjoy looking at them so much!

    I’m glad you enjoyed the pics, Robin! Actually, Marfa is high desert whereas Austin is southern plains, not desert, so it looks pretty different to my eyes. But you are right to see some typical Austin themes in this garden, including the use of decomposed granite for patios, limestone boulders, and grassland plants. It’s pretty lush by Marfa standards. —Pam

  15. Scott Weber says:

    At first I was confused why there were such large, bare expanses…then re-read your intro and saw it was an event space…so, of course, it makes perfect sense! I’m intrigued by the savannah-style planting…looks very interesting. I wonder what it looks like after the grasses and other plants have greened-up. I’m glad they’ve left the grasses standing…for regions with harsher weather, you might as well leave them standing until the new growth starts…otherwise you risk damage due to late/hard freezes…and you just have nothing to look at while waiting for them to resume growth 🙂

    Yes, now that I know spring comes much later to Marfa than to Austin, I agree that leaving the grasses standing makes sense. I’d love to see it all greened up as well. —Pam

  16. chuck b. says:

    Someone was just telling me they wanted to roadtrip to Marfa, and I was all, “What?”

    Now I get it!

    Bring your skinny jeans and cowboy hat, Chuck. Check out El Cosmico for a unique place to stay, and stick around after dark to see the Marfa lights. —Pam