Long Beach : Planners Vote Against Razing Cambridge Building

Amid some controversy, the Long Beach Planning Commission has taken the first step toward halting destruction of the 1960 Cambridge Building, a glass cube on a steel frame that has been acclaimed as one of the nation’s finest pieces of architecture.

The commission’s unanimous vote, subject to City Council approval, came over the protests of owners Robert and Ethelyn Rudolph of Rancho Mirage, who want to raze the building at 650 Pine Ave. to develop the adjacent land.

The building was selected as the finest in Southern California architecture by the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1960, was named one of AIA’s 18 best nationwide in 1961, and took first prize in the 1961 Sao Paulo Biennial in Sau Paulo, Brazil, a major international exhibition of fine art.

The commission also voted to give landmark status to the 1924 Meeker Building, a masonry structure accented by columns, tiles and friezes built at Pine Avenue near 7th Street to house the Long Beach National Bank.