Good hotels, important hotels, seem eternal. They morph over decades, sometimes centuries, creating distinct geological strata. Now, after years of disuse, the latest layer has been added to the Breakers Long Beach, which reopens tomorrow under a Fairmont flag.
Robb Report was offered a first look inside the long-anticipate rebirth of the 14-story luxury hotel, which has undergone a complete overhaul that honors the grandeur of its 1926 “ultra-Spanish,” ultra-Art Deco, Walker & Eisen architecture. The renovation of the Fairmont Breakers Long Beach not only creates the singular five-star hotel in the oceanside getaway—a one hour drive from Los Angeles —it also reopens the resplendent, top-floor Sky Room restaurant. “I live in Long Beach and everyone I meet asks me, ‘Are you bringing back the Sky Room?’” says Mark Steenge, the hotel’s general manager.
“That’s what the hotel is really known for, because the Sky Room was in existence for 86 years. I think that is an incredible responsibility that we have, to bring that restaurant back to life in a way that the locals will see as an improvement.” Originally a penthouse, the Sky Room itself was born from one of those geological moments in hotel history.
As the roaring ’20s faded into the Great Depression, the palatial 330-room waterfront hotel (land reclamation has since separated its East Ocean Boulevard address from the Pacific) was already on the brink. The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake forced it into bank.