Archinect - News

Construction Update: Becker + Becker's transformation of a historic Marcel Breuer building is making progress

2021-08-16T15:20:00-04:00

A brutalist icon continues to make progress with its green makeover thanks to a new Passive House renovation by Becker + Becker.

The Pirelli Tire Building is perhaps one of New Haven, Connecticut’s most famous landmarks. The original nine-story structure was completed in 1970 and considered one of Marcel Breuer’s signature American buildings as well as one of the best examples of Brutalism in the country.

Architect and developer Bruce Becker is working to convert the former office building, famously owned by IKEA until recently, into a boutique hotel with 165 rooms that also has a net-zero rating with water, heating, and electricity provided on-site, a feature the architect says is unique to some of the challenges of the typology.

“The hospitality sector is probably one of the hardest ones to electrify, because the buildings tend to use energy more intensively,” Becker told Fast Company. “If they have on-site laundries, the convention is to use a lot of fossil fuels to run those. ...

New Haven's Marcel Breuer building takes next step towards hotel redevelopment

2020-01-09T14:30:00-05:00

Plans to transform the historic Pirelli Building on Sargent Drive into a hotel have moved forward, as a local developer has purchased the property from IKEA for $1.2 million. The developer, Bruce Becker, purchased the 2.76-acre property at 500 Sargent Drive on Dec. 31. The deed was recorded in city land records Friday.

The Brutalist, Marcel Breuer-designed Pirelli Tire Building in New Haven could be experiencing a new life as a hotel after sitting vacant for years.

The New Haven Independent reports that the property's previous owner, IKEA, had "paved the way for the Pirelli project by winning approval in November 2018 from the City Plan Commission for a detailed plan and coastal site plan for the conversion of the building into a hotel with up to 165 rooms."

Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New Haven

In 2017, artist Tom Burr staged the show Body/Building inside the gutted belly of the 1960s building to draw renewed attention to the abandoned landmark that was partially demolished ("amputated," as Burr called it) in 2003 to make way for the adjacent IKEA parking lot.

Marcel Breuer's Brutalist Pirelli Building is slated for new life as a hotel

2018-04-24T14:53:00-04:00

Marcel Breuer's iconic Pirelli Building, once a symbol of New Haven's mid-century embrace of urban renewal and modern architecture, has spent the past two decades completely vacant, save for a recent art show.

Known for its Brutalist design featuring a 2-story gap, the mid-century masterpiece was taken over by IKEA in the late 90s. Upon acquiring the property, the Swedish furniture giant demolished the adjacent two-story wing to make room for parking spaces and have since left the remaining structure unoccupied, much to the anxiety of preservationists and civic leaders. Listed by the State Register of Historic Places, many believed it would become the victim of IKEA's demolition-by-neglect strategy.

With the New Haven Independent reporting on new interest in turning the Sargent drive property into a hotel, the building now has a shot at its adaptive reuse. IKEA has yet to announce updates on plans for the Pirelli Building, but the city's Economic Development Administrator Matthew ...

The peculiar history of New Haven's 'amputated' Marcel Breuer building

2017-10-09T14:09:00-04:00

Fifteen years after IKEA demolished part of it for a parking lot, a Marcel Breuer-designed office building in New Haven has become a stage for art. [...] Now, Burr is building on those explorations in his current show, Body/Building. Spread out over the first floor of Breuer’s gutted local icon, the show uses objects that weave together a story about himself, the site, and his city.

Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New Haven

New Haven-native, and now New York-based, artist Tom Burr tells the story of one of the city's most iconic, and controversial, buildings in his current show Body/Building, now on display inside the gutted belly of the 1960s brutalist Marcel Breuer-designed Long Wharf building.

"I’m interested in the fact that it’s amputated," Burr revealed, hinting at the partial demolition that the current owner, IKEA, saw necessary in 2003 to provide surface parking for its new store on the site.

Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New Haven

The show can still be visited until November 11 and is free of charge but requires an appointment.