Header: Courtesy of Rodrigo Vargas Design and HBA San Francisco
The Fairmont Breakers Long Beach is a 1926 landmark that’s been brought back as a 185-room hotel in Downtown Long Beach, with design by Rodrigo Vargas Design alongside HBA San Francisco. The project won the Interior Design – Hospitality: Hotel and Resort category at the BLT Built Design Award, and the reason why is worthy of study: treat the building’s history as something you can still read, while updating how it feels to arrive, move through, and stay in it.
That starts right at the front door. The entrance has been restored, and the building’s Renaissance Revival architecture, originally by Walker & Eisen, is part of the welcome again. The designers made sure that the architecture would come through clearly, so visitors notice the shape and the detailing rather than just another hotel entrance.
Once you’re inside, you immediately notice the designer’s “intricate historic framework”. Instead of trying to mimic the 1920s, the team layered contemporary elements onto the property’s 1920s backdrop. This means that they left what was already there and added new things carefully so the old structure still characterises the room.
Throughout the project, the atmosphere is described as a balance of classic glamour and modern sophistication. That balance is what stops the hotel from becoming a period look, but it also avoids any washout of the character that makes the building what it is. The idea, as the designer frames it, is not to replace the hotel’s identity, but to make it easier to experience.
