The building was constructed by brothers E.A. "Jack" Harter and T.D. "Til" Harter, doing business as the H & H Holding Company, at a cost of $2 million. It opened as Club Casa del Mar, a private beach club, on May 1, 1926. Designed by Los Angeles architect
Charles F. Plummer to reflect an
Italian Renaissance Revival aesthetic, the glory days of the hotel spanned 1926-41, as it became one of the most successful beach clubs in Southern California, popular with socialites and Hollywood celebrities. In 1941, the
US Navy took over the building, utilizing it for enlisted soldiers during
World War II. By 1960, the hotel was shuttered. In 1967, Charles E. Dederich reopened the building as the
Synanon Foundation, a drug rehabilitation program. In 1978,
Nathan Pritikin turned the building into the Pritikin Longevity Center, a nutrition and health care facility that closed in 1997. The Edward Thomas Hospitality Corporation, owners of the adjacent
Shutters on the Beach Hotel, acquired the property in November 1997 It reopened as Hotel Casa del Mar in October 1999. In February 2008, designer Darrell Schmitt completed a multimillion-dollar remodel of all 129 guest rooms and suites, adding new furniture, artwork, flat-screen televisions, windows, wallpaper, mirrors and drapes. In 2014, designer
Michael S. Smith redesigned the hotel's lobby, introducing striped cabana-style sitting areas in the lobby and coast-themed artwork, among other additions. During the two-month redesign, a large, temporary street art installation was installed in the lobby. The piece of art, titled
Absinthe and The Elephants, was created by local
street artist Jules Muck, serving as camouflage for the lobby's central bar area during renovations. The hotel is on the
National Register of Historic Places. ==Design and amenities==