Villa Riviera, Long Beach, CA

Under the direction and design of Owner/Builder Jennifer Allyn, the overlooked penthouse was transformed into a showplace. Purchased in 2020 from previous owners of 40 years. The Great Room which sits under the tall mansard roof on the West side, still had original paint and stencils on the poured concrete ceiling resembling faux wood beams. Jennifer Allyn brought the kitchen and bedroom areas from horrible, carpet and drop ceiling to the grandeur of the Great Room. She reconfigured the poorly laid out ancillary spaces to make a useful and elegant floor plan. The multiple glossy paint coats on the wood work was stripped to its original finish. She added oak wood floors to match the Great Room. Using found original doors from storage, she created wood paneling complete with a secret entrance.

My challenge was to tranform new drywall into poured, pressed wood, cement with the wood grain of the great room. Using a texture mix I applied the compound to the surface and dragged and combed the surface to look like the cement texture.

Using inspiration from the Awahnee Hotel In Yosemite, Jennifer modified the Great Room stencils to work in the parlor.

 

From Wikipedia:

Villa Riviera is a registered historic building on Ocean Boulevard Long Beach, California. From the time of its completion in 1929 through the mid-1950s, it was the second-tallest building, and the tallest private building, in Southern California. The 16-story Châteauesque building has been called the city’s “most elegant landmark” and a building that “has helped define the city.” The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and is currently used as condominiums with approximately 134 units, including two penthouse apartments occupying the 16th floor of the building, complete with gargoyles adorning both sides of the bay windows overlooking the city and ocean.

Built from 1927 to 1929 at a cost of $2.75 million,[2] the Villa Riviera is a 16-story French Gothic Building. The structure is topped with a steeply pitched verdigris copper roof.