Tall & Urban News

Architecture studio Becker + Becker has converted a 1970s brutalist building in New Haven, designed by Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer, into a Passive House hotel. Connecticut-based studio Becker + Becker, which bought the building from IKEA in 2019 after it had sat unused for more than twenty years, retained the façade of the Breuer-designed structure while updating the interiors.

Now named Hotel Marcel in honor of the original architect, the 165-room hotel opened in May 2022 under the Tapestry Collection by Hilton Hotels. Acting as both architect and developer, Becker + Becker renovated the building over the past three years removing asbestos from the former office building and repairing its facade.

The distinctive form of Breuer's original design—a wide structure with a void in the middle supported by columns so that the top floors and lower floors are divided into two sections—was retained. Externally the structure appears how Breuer designed it except for a section of the building that was torn down by IKEA in order to build a parking lot.

For more on this story, go to Dezeen.