Members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation visited Hotel Marcel New Haven, Tapestry Collection by Hilton on Tuesday. The building is fully powered by solar panels and has become a green energy landmark.
Hotel Marcel, located off I-95 in the same parking lot as IKEA, used to be an office building. It was repurposed and reopened in 2022.
It was the first hotel in the country to be fully fossil-fuel free.
The hotel will receive millions of dollars in historic federal and state tax credits.
U.S. Representative Jim Himes said the building is an example for the nation.
“The notion that you could have a building like this that is carbon neutral is both amazing, and something that we need to get the word out on, because oftentimes people don't know what is possible,” Himes said. “And that's a real win. It's a lot cheaper to run a building in an energy efficient way than it is to run in an energy inefficient way.”
The hotel is one of only 10 in the country to achieve a platinum status in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Bruce Redman Becker is the architect, developer and owner of Hotel Marcel. He said building new buildings can be more damaging to the environment than powering the finished project.
“Saving buildings, particularly historically significant ones, goes hand in hand with addressing these existential problems of climate change,” Becker said.
U.S. Green Building Council Market Transformation and Development Managing Director Rhianon Jacobson presented the hotel with a plaque to mark the achievement.
“We have a long way to go,” Jacobson said. “When we look at the mission of the U.S. Green Building Council, we set out with this very small mission statement: green buildings for all within a generation. 30 years, our clock is ticking. We have a lot more to do to make sure that our buildings are healthier.”
The hotel is powered by more than a thousand solar panels and boasts 165 guest rooms.
