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Gina Leneé’s Harmony House sits inside the Fresno High Neighborhood, on a tree-lined block of Van Ness Boulevard known for vintage homes; vintage in this case being 90 years old.
When she’s not traveling as a professional pianist, Leneé shares the 2,800 square-foot home with others — several roommates, as a long-term rental; and the community, as a private event and concert space.
She bought the home in 2017 and spent a year on renovations, creating what she calls “moment spaces” throughout the 1936 abode.
A curved nook looks out on the front patio, which is adorned with red cafe umbrellas visible from cars passing on Van Ness.
The nook doubles as a sitting lounge, just off the main living room, where Leneé keeps a set of pianos (one grand, one slightly less so).
The dining space is also a green room for performers and designed to optimize photo-friendly camera angles.
What had been a screened-in porch is now an extended gathering-and-coffee space just off the kitchen. Two types of coffee makers are set out next to a neon “Espresso” sign near a cabinet full of Torani-flavored syrups.
“It needed some love,” Leneé told The Bee during a tour of The Harmony House. “But I really could see having events here and it being something more than just my home.”
Pianist Gina Lenee’s Harmony House on Van Ness Avenue near Fresno High is inspired by her vision for a home and gathering place for musicians and artists. Photographed Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com The Pudlin Residence + Ernest J. Kump
The Harmony House was constructed as the Pudlin residence, a prominent Fresno merchant at the time. It was deigned by Ernest J. Kump, Jr., an architect working in the American modernist style. The home “set a dramatic new standard for design simplicity along Fresno’s prestigious North Van Ness Boulevard,” according to the site HistoricFresno.org.
Kump (under partnership with Charles H. Franklin) would become well known in Fresno, designing multiple nearby residences (just west on Wilson Avenue) and several prominent buildings downtown. That includes the original Fresno Unified Administration Building (on Mariposa Mall) and the City Hall Annex, which officially served as City Hall from 1941 until 1992. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City considered it one of most outstanding buildings in America at the time.
But the Pudlin residence was his first in Fresno.
Some 80 years later, Leneé leaned into Kump’s design and Art Deco aesthetic of the time.
Aside from some recessed lighting and other fixtures, which didn’t really exist in the 1930s, the house was kept as original as possible, she says.
The decor is mostly bold black and white (a nod to her passion and profession) with pops of bright red or gold. On the walls is Leneé’s collection of art; multiple pieces from Romain de Tirtoff, or Erte, the French artist and designer known for his fashion-forward pieces. She’s been collecting his work since she was in her 20s.
The backyard was gutted, save for the pool, and completely redesigned to include a cabana (another of Leneé’s “moment spaces”), and an Airbnb studio space. The patio, just off the back door, is designed in black and white pavers, which Leneé has set up with giant chess pieces, but “it really becomes whatever the vision for that event is,” she says.
Pianist Gina Lenee sits in her Harmony House on Van Ness Avenue near Fresno High. Photographed Thursday, July 31, 2026. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
There’s plenty of music.
Jazz singer Karen Marguth set up on the back patio for an intimate private concert in May. The Brazilian duo Love and Bossa Nova will make a return to the Harmony House in September and pianist Collin Provence will perform Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for a holiday concert in December.
Leneé will host a performance of her own work in September, in advance of a concert at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. It will be a pre-Grammy soirée in celebration of her recent album being submitted for consideration on the upcoming ballot.
But the space is open for events of all kinds — product launches and photo shoots, cocktail parties and baby showers and weddings. It’s been featured in hip-hop videos and movies shoots. It has yet to host a bat mitzvah, but not for lack of trying.
“That’s the thing I love the most,” Leneé says.
“To be a small part of a celebration for someone.”
Pianist Gina Lenee holds a framed photograph of Jeff Hall, guitarist, producer, former owner of Maximus Media and former owner of the Harmony House, Lenee’s vision for a home and central gathering place for musicians and artists along North Van Ness Ave. Photographed Thursday, July 31, 2026 in central Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com Jeff Hall, en memorium
What Leneé is doing with the Harmony House is sort of an homage to its previous owner, Jeff Hall.
Leneé bought the home following Hall’s death 2017 and keeps a photo of him on display for guests.
In it, he strums a guitar.
Hall was a well known figure in Fresno’s music and entertainment scene, as a musician, audio engineer, producer and founder of the recording studio Maximus Media.
He actually produced six albums for Leneé, including her first. It was a set of eight songs, recorded for somewhere around $600, far less than he should have charged for the work.
“That was a labor or love he gave to me,” she says.
During renovation on the home, curious neighbors would stop by to inquire about what was going on with “Jeff’s House,” Leneé says. The name, Harmony House, seemed a fitting tribute to the space, and to Hall. “This already was a house about making music, and people getting together.”
A G Cleft, or treble clef note, is seen in the front yard of pianist Gina Lenee’s Harmony House on Van Ness Ave. Photographed Aug. 3, 2026 in central Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
This story was originally published August 6, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
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Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.