Marcel Breuer’s 1970 Connecticut headquarters for Armstrong Rubber Company has re-emerged as the Hotel Marcel New Haven, Tapestry Collection by Hilton. A skillful reinterpretation of the nine-level, 110,000-squre-foot icon of concrete brutalism by Dutch East Design and architect-developer Bruce Becker of Becker + Becker resulted in 165 rooms for the former IKEA–owned property that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now one of fewer than a dozen LEED Platinum–certified hotels in the country.

Dutch East partners Dieter Cartwright, Larah Moravek, and William Oberlin were keen to tap into the Breuer energy—up to a point. “We chose not to be nostalgic,” Cartwright begins. “It was important for us to write a new chapter.” Moravek adds, “We wanted to create a soft underbelly to the strong exoskeleton.” That strategy begins in the lobby, with walls enriched by handmade terra-cotta tiles that warm up the large, column-free space. The palette for the rooms, the restaurant named BLDG, and the 7,000 square feet of event space is unified by “walnut and maple, concrete grays and caramels,” notes Moravek, for a muted feel.

In BLDG, a quartz-topped bar with wood accents is topped by a perforated canopy powder-coated bronze—subtle shades of the feeling of suspension in the overall structure. Some of the housing for overhead lighting was reclaimed from the original building site and used there, too. “It’s a fun, little detail that ties into the history,” Oberlin says.