Hotel Snapshot
Nothing about Hotel Marcel New Haven, Tapestry Collection By Hilton, seems to go hand-in-hand. The Brutalist concrete structure sits off the intersection of two interstates, causing drivers to do double takes with the nine-floor building “missing” its third and fourth levels. Yet inside, there’s a warmth to its soft geometric-forward decor, exuding a clean-cut Scandinavian essence—its mirror hangings are even sourced from its next-door neighbor Ikea. But its secret sauce is tucked away in the details, from the use of paper bags for laundry to more than 1,000 solar panels running its operations. And if you dare to pick up the lobby phone for its Climate Wake-up Call or peek at its energy monitoring screens, you’ll quickly understand what drives this historic Connecticut property: its eco-conscious soul.
Design & Character
A student of the modernist Bauhaus movement, German designer Marcel Breuer designed the building for the Armstrong Rubber Company in 1968 before the Pirelli Tire Company took over in 1988. An architectural marvel so underappreciated—and even voted the state’s “ugliest building” at one point—its western extension was chopped off when Ikea needed a parking lot in 2003, as the building fell into disuse. Then, local architect Bruce Becker had a vision: To turn “this remarkable mid-century modern landmark that had been abandoned for 20 years” into “a model for sustainable hospitality,” as he told Hotels Above Par. His goal was “to demonstrate that a beautiful hotel can provide ‘Hospitality for the Planet’ without sacrificing the luxury guest experience.”
He achieved just that, when the 165-key hotel opened in 2022. While staying there with my 10-year-old niece in August, she reveled in its two-story void as we rode the elevator through invisible floors. The lobby served as her picture-posing playground, where she hunted for shapes, like the triangles in the restaurant’s funkily-shaped glasses, while I hunted for its earth-first touches, from touch-free water stations to a plaque certifying the zero-emission hotel as one of the nation’s first LEED Platinum certified hotels, on its way to be net zero by the end of this year.
The Rooms
In our Deluxe 2 Queens room, functionality met spaciousness, with a touch of future tech. The fifth grader was taken by the touch panel’s options for “social” or “romantic” vibes, toggling between the two, as the lights and blackout shades adjusted. There was so much open space, she couldn’t help but show off her freshest gymnastics tricks, and loved cozying into one of the hotel’s 525 five-foot triple-paned windowsills as a reading nook. I was drawn towards the Knoll-made Cesca desk chair designed by Breuer, the comfy Serta Perfect Sleeper TempActive Suite Dreams NXT mattress, and the fact the in-room fridge perfectly fit pizza boxes. The only minor hiccup was that the touch panel malfunctioned one night. But a technician was at the room in a blink, admitting that after three years, they’re already in the process of upgrading their system to one with bigger screens.
Food & Drink
Playful in spirit and sustainable at heart, the in-house restaurant, BLDG is driven by local ingredients under the stewardship of Executive Chef Megan Gill from Denton, Texas, best known from Hell’s Kitchen’s Season 20. Busy with hotel guests, locals, and an airline crew alike on the Saturday morning we dined there, I went for a BLDG Breakfast substituting in tasty sweet potato biscuits with cinnamon honey butter, while my niece opted for a Gooey Cinnamon Roll with a side of bacon, both of us leaving with happy tummies.
Amenities
Hotel Marcel’s lot isn’t just free, it’s covered, under a solar-powered roof, with a plethora of electric chargers plus a bank of Tesla chargers. That’s just one sign of its most coveted amenity: being all-electric. That stretches from its kitchen and laundry to its heating, cooling, and hot water systems, and even its elevators, which generate power as they brake. It’s no wonder this was the first hotel in the nation to become Passive House Certified. Other amenities include a basic, but well designed, gym, and 9,000 square feet of meeting space.
Location & Neighborhood Recs
The location may feel like you’re staying in the Ikea parking lot, but in reality you’re less than a 10-minute drive to all of New Haven’s highlights—and most importantly a 15-minute walk to the Wooster Square neighborhood, where the Connecticut-style “apizza” battle brews on with dueling lines at mainstays Sally’s Apizza and Frank Pepe Pizzeria, while Modern is about an eight-minute drive north. The Yale University campus is also about 8 minutes to the northwest, whether it’s visiting its newly renovated Yale Peabody Museum, where my niece was mesmerized by the colorful frogs. But the most fascinating spot nearby is Lost in New Haven, opening this fall, which can only be described as so-much-more-than-just-a-museum, but a collection of the human spirit told through the lens of local relics, passionately collected and curated by Robert Greenberg.
Further, yet also a 10-minute drive away, is the Pez Visitor Center in Orange, where we over-ambitiously crossed off every box on our game-of-the-month bingo card. Hotel Marcel’s I-95 location also means it’s primed for easy day trips, whether it’s to Mystic, an hour east for its charming seaport and a slice of Julia Roberts’ famed Mystic Pizza, or an hour west to New Canaan for the architectural marvels at Philip Johnson’s The Glass House or the SANAA-designed Grace Farms.
Fast Facts
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Vibe: Seriously Brutalist on the outside, light-heartedly Scandinavian on the inside, and compassionately eco-first all the way through.
Rating: Four-star
Room Count: 165 rooms and suites
Pricing: Deluxe rooms average $349 on weekends
Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Climate Wake-Up Call phone in the lobby with pre-recorded messages from CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue and ClimaData founder John Morales, reminding guests how to travel and live with an earth-first mentality.
Dining: New American restaurant BLDG, serving breakfast from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, brunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends, and dinner daily from 5 to 10 p.m. The bar is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a weekday happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m.
Amenities: Fitness center, complimentary electric shuttle within a five-mile radius, free self-parking lot with electric charging stations, including Tesla stations.
Nearby Attractions: New Haven’s trio of pizza institutions, Sally’s Apizza, Frank Pepe Pizzeria, and Modern; Yale University campus including the Yale Peabody Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and Beinecke Rare Books Library; Louis’ Lunch, where the hamburger sandwich was born; the massively impressive Lost in New Haven, opening this fall; and the German-inspired East Rock Beer.
Closest Airport: The regional Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN) is four miles away, while New England’s second largest airport, Bradley International Airport (BDL) is about 54 miles to the north.
