CANOE OVERSEES FF&E PROCUREMENT ON USA’S FIRST NET-ZERO HOTEL

Hotel Marcel, named in honor of the original architect Marcel Breuer, opened in May 2022 under the Tapestry Collection by Hilton Hotels. Canoe Hospitality proudly served alongside Becker + Becker and Dutch East Design as the project’s FF&E procurement consultant on the renovation from the historically protected Armstrong Rubber Company Building into a 165-room boutique hotel designed to meet LEED Platinum standards and becoming the country’s first Passive House-certified hotel in the USA.

“The design both honors this lineage, as well as writes a new chapter for the building. It’s the soft, warm, and inviting underbelly to the hard concrete exoskeleton”

— Dieter Cartwright, Dutch East Design

THE BOUTIQUE HOTEL WILL GENERATE ITs own electricity, heat, and hot water

Canoe Hospitality worked alongside Becker + Becker and Dutch East Design on the intensive renovation of the historically protected Armstrong Rubber Company Building to provide FF&E procurement for the 165-room boutique hotel designed to meet LEED Platinum standards and is the country’s first Passive House-certified hotel in the USA. 

Net-zero properties offset all their greenhouse gas emissions — methane, nitrous oxide, among others, and not only carbon. The Hotel Marcel in New Haven, Connecticut, became the first hotel in the United States to achieve net-zero energy use when it opened in April. The renovation of a Marcel Breuer-designed building in New Haven that is now known as Hotel Marcel is making headlines for more than just its brilliant balance of honoring the building's brutalist heritage while giving the midcentury FF&E-filled interiors new life. It is also making headlines for its innovations as a net-zero building that will generate 100% of its own electricity, heat, and hot water with a rooftop solar array and solar parking canopies.

The hotel’s FF&E is practical and innovative, much like the hotel's namesake, Marcel Breuer.

Since the hotel was also complying with standards to be a certified historic structure—not to mention to attain LEED Platinum certification and to be the first hotel in the United States designed to Passive House standards—the team repurposed as much as they could, from the parquet panels lining the elevator walls to the light fixtures in the interconnecting ceiling tiles to the 525 windows that are now triple glazed and encased with custom FF&E hardwood surrounds made by Stickley Furniture, based nearby in New York.

The furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) in the hotel are practical and innovative, much like the hotel's namesake, who was an early leader of the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus and went on to design his iconic tubular steel furniture. The Bauhaus serves as a source of inspiration for the artwork, the majority of which is comprised of textile work created by local artisans. Canoe Hospitality worked hard to source and procure custom bespoke FF&E from a variety of regional artisans as part of the extensive refurbishment that was necessary due to the fact that a significant portion of the original interiors were unusable.

A study in midcentury reverence, the iconic structure was left vacant for more than two decades before becoming a member of Hilton's Tapestry Collection of independent hotels. The interiors of the hotel were created by Brooklyn-based Dutch East Design. Breuer's influence can be seen in the hotel's restaurant, bar, and sunken lounge, and in the over 7,000 square feet of meeting rooms Dutch East Design utilized lighter material palette of Travertine, oak, and terra cotta tiles.

The 165 guestrooms have been designed with a more moody atmosphere by the use of contrasting grays and walnut. In addition to Breuer's iconic Cesca chairs, which have been reupholstered with fabric made by Anni Albers, a well-known textile designer associated with the Bauhaus, each room has FF&E that has been specially developed by Dutch East Design and project managed and purchased by Canoe Hospitality. Dutch East designed a number of specialty FF&E pieces, including an interconnecting modular system for storage and sculptural nightstands that offer a counterweight of fun to the building's rigidity. Both of these pieces were manufactured in Connecticut by a local FF&E furniture maker. The rooms' harsh lines are further mellowed by linens made of certified organic cotton and textile art created by Cory Emma Siegler. Siegler's geometric patterns are another way in which Dutch East Design pays tribute to the tradition of the Bauhaus.

On the eighth story, the original executive offices that were part of the Armstrong Building have been converted into the hotel's biggest rooms. This is where the modernist Bauhaus aesthetics come full circle. Those who face east offer expansive views of the Long Island Sound, while the historic suites that face west look out over the New Haven skyline. A brighter color palette is used throughout, and there is ample space for luxurious FF&E, kitchenettes, and even soaking tubs in some of the rooms.

Bruce Becker, New Haven-based architect and developer, conceived up the idea for the Hotel Marcel. He refers to his strategy as "hospitality for the planet." Low-voltage LED technology is used for the building's lighting, and the BLDG restaurant, which is located on the premises, prepares its unique cuisine using induction cooking. There are now 12 Tesla superchargers and two universal EV charging stations available for use by guests, with numerous additional charging stations on the way. An electric shuttle that can fit up to 14 passengers is available for people who do not have access to their own vehicle. At a minimum, the structure produces a same amount of energy as it utilizes. The brutalist edifice, which was constructed in 1969 to serve as the headquarters and research labs for the Armstrong Rubber Company, was originally made out of recycled materials itself.

Guests at the hotel's all-day bar and restaurant may not be aware that their lattes were brewed and steamed with electricity generated by the hotel's own photovoltaic solar panels, due to the fact that the hotel is completely powered by solar energy. However, they can be sure that their drinks are delicious. The same can be said for each and every item of linen that is washed, each and every shade that is lowered using a remote control, each and every light fixture that is turned on, and each and every warm bath that is drawn. The majority of the Marcel's 165 guest rooms provide views of either the Yale University campus in historic New Haven or Long Island Sound from the waterfront side of the hotel. Because to Becker's ingenious installation of light wells, a few of the inner rooms have access to natural light. Even though there is a consistent flow of highway traffic at all hours of the day, triple-pane windows produce an unexpected sense of calm within the building.

“Not being sustainable is unfashionable now,” said Becker, noting that recycling and reusing materials is being embraced by individuals and industry alike. It’s time for the hospitality industry to truly welcome the change.

---

How can Canoe’s resources and procurement expertise benefit your next project?