What did the Tesla EV say to the Lucid and Rivian EVs?
“You guys are electrifying.”
Okay, horrible joke, but what was not a joke was seeing the first net-zero energy hotel in the US, as several HFFC members enjoyed the site, presentation, and tour on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May.
The Hotel Marcel, in New Haven, is next door to the IKEA store. The developer, planner and architect that renovated the former Armstrong tire building is Bruce Becker, of Becker & Becker. Bruce was HFFCs first Zoom presenter when the pandemic hit in 2020. Although his talk to our group that night was primarily about electric vehicles, he let us in on some of the plans for this building.
The hotel should be how new hotels and other buildings need to be built. Aside from the net-zero carbon footprint, the guest room experience brings a quiet that one does not get at traditional hotels. Built near the noisy and busy I-95 CT highway, once inside the hotel, all that outside noise is gone. How? By using 2.25” thick glass windows, special environmentally safe insulation, and other innovative designs, the hotel room experience is incredible. Too many features to list, so go to the hotelmarcel.com website and see all that they have to offer.
Why is it called Hotel Marcel? It is named after the ‘Hungarian-born architect Marcel Breuer, who designed the original building in the 60’s and experimented with new advances in technology and building materials that created an architectural framework that seems to defy gravity. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel's concrete stature has become iconic.’
