The following verbiage is taken from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form to describe the history of this local landmark:
The Villa Riviera is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under criterion C as an outstanding example of a Chateauesque style luxury apartment building. The building is widely recognized as one of the most important landmarks in the City of Long Beach, not only for the beauty of its architecture, but also for its sheer size at 277 feet and for its prominent location on the Pacific Coast. It stood as the tallest building in Long Beach until the ARCO towers were completed in the 1980s.
The Villa Riviera was conceived by Lionel V. Mayell, who began to develop and finance the project in 1927. Mayell played an important role in the development of multifamily housing in Long Beach as the successful promoter of the "own your own" apartment concept. His first cooperatively-owned project was the Aratban in 1922, followed by the Cooper Arms two years later. Construction of the Villa Riviera began in 1928 and was completed in 1929. Construction costs were somewhere in excess of $2.5 million. Frank F. Merriam was appointed sales manager in 1928. Merriam was formerly Speaker of the State Assembly and represented the district for eleven years. Apartments sold for $12,000 to $50,000, depending on the number of rooms and furnishings.
The use and ownership of the Villa has changed over time. During the Depression, the ownership reverted to the Mortgage Guaranty Company of Los Angeles and was operated as an apartment hotel. The Burger Hotel Company purchased the building for $1.5 million in 1937. During World War II, the Navy leased several floors of the building to house officers which brought about the nickname "Home of the Admirals." In 1946, the Burger Hotel Company sold it to George S. Alien for $2 million. He sold it in 1954 for $1.75 million to the Morris Hotel chain in Beverly Hills. In 1955 the Villa was sold again, this time for $2 million to a consortium called the Villa Holding Company, which reconverted the building back to a cooperative.
The building was constructed during a building boom which occurred in Long Beach after World War I. Long Beach boosters, spurred on by thriving oil and real estate industries, were determined to change the image of the city with first class architecture. New "skyscrapers" and "highrises" transformed the look of the skyline. Unlike Los Angeles which had a 150 foot height limit until 1956, buildings in Long Beach could rise as high as the technology would allow. Elegant commercial buildings, hotels, and apartments were testimony to a more sophisticated built environment. The Villa Riviera was the quintessential structure designed during this period of the city's growing architectural refinement. A full-page spread of the Villa in a 1929 issue of Architectural Digest put Long Beach on the architectural map of the West Coast.
Buyers were attracted to the Villa Riviera not only for the beach front location and architectural distinction, but also for the luxurious amenities. In addition to the 154 apartments and two penthouses, the building included a ballroom, lounge, roof garden, restaurant, shops, and parking structure. Dressing rooms and showers for bathers and maids' quarters were located in the basement and subbasement, which appear as the first and second stories from the beach. Each floor was designed to include ten apartments ranging in size from one to five rooms, however, any sized suite could be accommodated if ordered before the building was completed. Suites came completely furnished and featured space-saving, built-in cabinetry and even included china and linens. Once again, specific design requests could be made before or during construction.
There were several other luxury highrise apartment/hotels constructed in the city during the post-World War I building boom. Among the most prominent were the Breakers Hotel, a fifteen story edifice on the beach (1925); the Cooper Arms (1922); the Lafayette Hotel (1929); and the Broadlind (1928) . The Villa Riviera, however, was by far the most architecturally distinctive of this new property type, and the only such structure designed in the Chateauesque style.