Annenberg Community Beach House

The history of the Annenberg Community Beach House is the stuff of Hollywood legend: a mogul, movie star and a trailblazing woman architect play the leading roles.

“FF&P’s projects employ restraint not in an effort to wipe the historical slate clean but as framing devices to set off and help us examine the past.” – Christopher Hawthorne

In 1927, publisher Randolph Hearst commissioned a Greek Revival, oceanfront mansion as a home for his mistress, actress and philanthropist Marion Davies. The five-acre estate originally included a 100-room main house designed by William Flannery, as well as a guest house, gardens, tennis courts, and an elegant, marble-clad pool elaborately decorated with images of sea life. Only the Julia Morgan-designed guest house and pool—both historic landmarks—remain.
As LA’s first community beach club, we were excited to transform this once private and exclusive space into a playful, new public environment.
We wanted the beach house to serve as an inviting gateway to the ocean, impressive yet low-key and accessible at the same time. The site of the original mansion now holds a two-story building that accommodates changing areas and spacious, window-filled meeting, event, and community rooms. These open onto an ocean-facing terrace fronted by a white concrete colonnade that recalls the historic house façade’s location and scale—a whimsical “ghost.”
The guest house—renovated and restored to its original elegance— now features additional public meeting rooms and a sunken garden with a fountain in front. The gurgling water helps drown the noise from the nearby freeway. We welcome artist interventions—they bring our architecture to life.
Artist Roy McMakin crafted a domestically-inspired installation of metal garden chairs and picket fences to make the courtyard between the event center and guest house feel more homey and approachable. In 2017, the experimental art/event collective Machine Project organized a guide to underwater art, staged in the swimming pool. Guests wore goggles to see submerged paintings and blown glass; blow-up sculptures floated on the pool’s surface.
The beach house’s architectural and landscape elements collectively form a lively place for playing, learning, remembering, and making new memories. Its energy bleeds out into the surrounding beachfront, which features a new wooden boardwalk that leads from the pool all the way down to the shore. Amenities along the new boardwalk include a children’s play area, a restaurant, a concession building, and beach volleyball courts, all available for everyone.

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