Rooms by the sea

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One of New Haven’s notable landmarks of the brutalist era in architecture may get a new lease on life—as a hotel. The 50-year-old Pirelli Building, designed by Marcel Breuer, has sat empty alongside I-95 and New Haven Harbor since 1988. When the furniture retailer IKEA arrived, the site it purchased included the Pirelli Building. IKEA demolished part of the building’s manufacturing and warehouse wing to make room for parking, but it preserved the raised office block. In December, IKEA sold the building to architect-developer Bruce Becker ’85MArch, ’85MBA (who developed the 500-unit 360 State Street apartment tower in downtown New Haven). “The Pirelli Building is one of the most architecturally significant mid-century modern buildings in the United States,” Becker told the New Haven Independent, “and has the potential to be preserved and transformed into a net-zero energy boutique hotel and conference center.”