Living in the Past
You've probably been taken aback by the Villa Riviera while visiting downtown Long Beach. They just didn't construct buildings that high in Southern California back then, save City Hall.
As a matter of fact, the 16 story building--built in 1928--is just a few feet shorter than City Hall. The height restriction in L.A. (repealed in the 1950s) means you'll find no other buildings in the region from that era taller--which is why the Villa Riviera is such a sight to behold.
According to the L.A. Times, it's now a 134-unit condo dripping with history. Here's the best part of the story: A tenant recently doing some repair work discovered a Prohibition-era safe behind a fake wall in one of his closets. The safe contained newspapers from 1929-1933, plans for a 1929 party and a bottle of 1913 champagne.
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