Under the direction and design of Owner/Builder Jennifer Allyn, the long-overlooked penthouse was transformed into a refined showplace. Purchased in 2020 from owners of forty years, the space retained remarkable historic character — particularly in the Great Room, which sits beneath the tall mansard roof on the west side. The poured concrete ceiling still displayed its original painted stenciling, designed to resemble faux wood beams.
Jennifer Allyn elevated the kitchen and bedroom areas — previously compromised by carpet and dropped ceilings — to match the grandeur and architectural integrity of the Great Room. She reconfigured the poorly arranged ancillary spaces into a cohesive, functional, and elegant floor plan.
Layers of glossy paint were meticulously stripped from the original woodwork, restoring its authentic finish. New oak flooring was installed to seamlessly integrate with the existing Great Room floors. Using salvaged original doors discovered in storage, she fabricated custom wood paneling, ingeniously incorporating a concealed entrance.
My contribution to the project involved transforming newly installed drywall to visually replicate the poured, pressed cement surfaces with wood grain texture found in the Great Room. Using a custom texture compound, I built up the surface and manipulated it by dragging and combing to recreate the distinctive cement-and-grain character.
Drawing inspiration from the decorative stenciling at The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, Jennifer adapted the Great Room motifs for the adjoining parlor, modifying scale and pattern to suit the more intimate setting.
Below is the newest addition to the Penthouse, the parlor has a new mural based on the Canadian Thomas Thomson, (1877-1917) painting ‘Autumn’ Painted on canvas and wallpapered.
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.
