Hotel Marcel

A six story office and warehouse facility comprised of a lower slab and suspended block. A Brutalist icon designed by famous Modernist Marcel Breuer, the building is a landmark, clearly visible from the closely situated interstate highways. The precast concrete structure features a prominent yet simple pattern of crystalline planes and evenly distributed windows. Currently a sustainability-minded specialty hotel operated by Hilton, the building once was a corporate headquarters. Connecticut's Armstrong Rubber Company commissioned the building as a space for administrative offices as well as research and warehousing. It was later purchased by Pirelli, another tire company, for the same purpose. The majority of the structure’s base building was controversially demolished in favor of parking space when the neighboring IKEA took ownership in 2003. Before its conversion to a hotel, the building was home to a year-long public art installation, during which many of the signs of extended vacancy were stripped away.