The Threat
The Process and the Conservancy's Position

The Threat

The Seaport Marina Hotel is currently threatened with demolition. Photo by Larry Underhill.

The Seaport Marina Hotel in Long Beach, a Googie-style garden motel complex adjacent to the Alamitos Bay Marina, is slated for demolition to make way for the massive, mixed-use Second+PCH development. A draft environmental impact report (EIR) was initially released in 2010 and reissued in March 2011 with no change to the project; only the traffic circulation was amended.

Designed by prominent African American architect Roy Sealey, the hotel was completed in 1963 and originally called the Edgewater Inn.

The large site features two, two-story zigzag guest room wings originally housing 200 hotel rooms, and arranged symmetrically to create partially enclosed courtyard spaces. As originally envisioned, each hotel room is afforded either a courtyard or ocean view. A separate building houses the public components, including the hotel office, restaurant, lounge, and meeting rooms.

Photo by Larry Underhill.

Although the complex suffers from deferred maintenance and later additions, the buildings maintain a high level of architectural integrity, with distinctive features including unique Y-shaped piers supporting a diamond-patterned roofline on the main building; a folded-plate roofline on a circular office wing; decorative concrete block screens; and original diamond-patterned metal railings.

The Process and the Conservancy's Position

Photo by Larry Underhill.

Neither the previous nor the current draft EIR identifies the Seaport Marina Hotel as a historic resource, and no preservation alternative is evaluated. We consider the hotel a fine example of Roy Sealey’s work and one of a few surviving examples of a 1960s Googie-style hotel.

As part of the EIR process, the Conservancy is asking for the Seaport Marina Hotel to be considered as a historic resource in the EIR process, and that at least one feasible preservation alternative be evaluated. Alternatives to demolition include adaptively reusing the entire historic hotel or incorporating portions -- including the most distinctive, character-defining features -- into the proposed development.

LAC Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Report (PDF)

Photo by Sarah Farris-Gilbert.

Seaport Marina Hotel was brought to the attention of the Conservancy by members of our Modern Committee, and has been an advocacy issue for Long Beach Heritage. The next step in the process will be the release of the final EIR, which may occur later this year. Following the release of the final EIR, there will be an opportunity to provide comments before the Long Beach Planning Commission and City Council.

Thank you to everyone who submitted comments advocating for the preservation of Seaport Marina Hotel as part of the EIR process for the proposed Second + PCH project. We will keep you updated on this issue as it develops.

View the Draft EIR for the Second+PCH Project
Long Beach Heritage's Position on Seaport Marina Hotel (PDF)
Long Beach Heritage's Endangered Properties Watch List