OWLs Visit New Haven
Schedule
Fri Jan 09 2026 at 10:00 am to 03:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
The Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center | New Haven, CT
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On January 9th at 10:00 am, the OWLs will visit the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center (1 State Street, New Haven) for a tour of "The Spirit of Christmas" exhibit.This exhibit features creches and other artwork from around the globe, celebrating the birth of Jesus and the traditions and feast days during the season.
We will also have time to visit the "Away in a Manger: The Creation of Nativity Scenes" exhibit. This exhibit includes a variety of creches that showcase different examples of stables and mangers.
After our tour we will travel .6 mile to the Hotel Marcel (500 Sargent Drive, New Haven). The General Manger, Ben Webster, is expected to give us a tour of this unique hotel.
The Hotel Marcel formerly The Pirelli Tire Building is a notable example of brutalist architecture, originally designed by Marcel Breuer in 1970 for the Armstrong Rubber Company.
Design: A massive concrete structure with two distinct sections separated by a void for acoustic separation.
Legacy: It has been renovated and is now the Hotel Marcel, a luxury hotel that emphasizes sustainability while preserving many of Breuer's original features. The hotel, which is known for being the first zero-emissions hotel in the United States, is powered entirely by solar energy and a microgrid without any fossil fuels.
Brutalism comes from the French beton brut, which means raw, concrete. The term is used to describe concrete that is left unfinished after being cast, displaying the patterns and seams imprinted on it by the formwork. Beton brut, it is not a material itself, but rather an architectural expression of concrete.
The style flourished briefly in the '60s and '70s before falling into disfavor. The reason for the dense concentration of Brutalist architecture in New Haven is in large part because of the Yale Architecture School. It attracted many of the movements of American luminaries.
Of all modernist architecture, Brutalism tends to elicit the most intense reactions. People either love it or they hate it. There's virtually no middle ground. After our tour, we will be eating in the hotel's BLDG Restaurant.
Ikea shares a parking lot with Hotel Marcel, giving us an opportunity to visit after lunch.
This trip is rain or shine.
The OWL Board
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Where is it happening?
The Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center, 1 State St,New Haven, Connecticut, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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