Cooper Arms Apartments, Historic residential tower in downtown Long Beach, United States.
The Cooper Arms Apartments is a twelve-story steel-reinforced concrete building with brick walls finished in stucco, standing at Ocean Boulevard and Linden Avenue in Long Beach's East Village. Los Angeles architects Curlett & Beelman gave the L-shaped tower Renaissance Revival and "Adam Revival" detailing with neo-classical and neo-Egyptian ornamentation, and it holds 159 apartments across 406 rooms.
Construction was completed in 1923, making it the most substantial building investment Long Beach had experienced up to that point. The project marked a turning point in the city's growth and demonstrated its emergence as an important commercial hub.
The building's name comes from developer Larkin Cooper, who moved to Long Beach from Emporia, Kansas, where he had worked in the feed and grain business. He built on a stretch of Ocean Boulevard previously occupied by eight houses he owned. The architects Curlett & Beelman gave the L-shaped tower Renaissance Revival and "Adam Revival" forms with neo-classical and neo-Egyptian ornament.
Cooper Arms stands at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Linden Avenue in the East Village, a short walk from the downtown core. The ground-level garden along Ocean Boulevard opens onto a Spanish loggia that runs through the building to Linden Avenue. The building is a private condominium, so the lobby and upper floors are not open to casual visitors.
The 1922 promotional brochure promised amenities then rare in Long Beach: steam heating, high-speed elevators, "instantaneous hot water at all times," "Iceless Frigidors," disappearing beds and dustless roller screens. The twelfth-floor solarium and ballroom, with domed ceiling, ornate moldings and lanterns, occupied most of the top floor.
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