The building next to Ikea and US Route 95 in New Haven stood empty for 20 years. It was once the headquarters of Armstrong Rubber Company. The building is a famous work of brutalist architecture by esteemed architect Marcel Breuer before brutalism fell out of favor.
A few years ago the building was renovated by Connecticut architects and became the Hotel Marcel, operated by the Hilton Hotel group. With extensive solar arrays on its roof and nearby parking lots, Hotel Marcel is the country’s first fossil fuel-free hotel. It is Net-Zero and LEED Platinum.
The building’s iconic six-foot-by-three-foot windows are glazed with high performance glass that meets the Passive House Standard (and has the added benefit of insulating guest rooms from traffic noise.)
We have some Brutalist architecture here. It is not a style that works for me.
ReplyDeleteIt is fabulous, Jack.
ReplyDeleteThat is an impressive looking building, and even more impressive as it is carbon neutral. That is even more impressive. More buildings should do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteWow. Love it.
ReplyDeleteWas about to write what William Kendall did. Here in Serbia and all over the former Yugoslavia there is much Brutalist style art.
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