Dallas Observer: The Mushroom House Stands Out. That Might Be What Gets It Demolished
The Mushroom House may be running out of time.
A fairy-tale oddity among the traditional mansions of Highland Park, the home at 4200 Armstrong Parkway has been a source of fascination, frustration and controversy since its completion in 1997. Designed by architect Tom Workman with inspiration from his mentors Bruce Goff and Fay Jones, the house looks more like something out of a fantasy novel than a high-dollar neighborhood in Dallas.
Now, it might not be around much longer.
The home was recently purchased by auto magnate Clay Cooley and his wife, Lisa, as part of a larger acquisition of three Highland Park properties. That is where the trouble starts. Highland Park has no preservation laws, which means owners can bulldoze whatever they want. And the area has a history of wiping out anything that does not fit the neighborhood’s well-manicured aesthetic.
Love it or hate it, the Mushroom House is impossible to ignore. The steep, flowing shingle roof twists into curved bay windows and arched dormers. The house almost looks alive, with natural forms that seem to move under the weight of their own design. It is not a McMansion. It is not a sleek modern build. It is something entirely different.
Workman, a Dallas-based architect, created the home with his wife, Jane Anne, who handpicked its colors and decor. He even crafted the roof shingles himself. The house was meant to be a personal statement, a work of art as much as a place to live.
The neighbors were never on board. Complaints started when the house was still under construction. The design clashed with the neighborhood’s traditional stone and brick estates, and residents made sure to make their disapproval known.
But not everyone was against it. Stanley Marcus, the late retail giant behind Neiman Marcus, defended the home in a 1997 letter to The Dallas Morning News.
“It is easy to understand that property owners in the adjoining blocks may feel affronted by the appearance of a new house in the neighborhood,” he wrote. “But in a country that thrives on contemporary design in automobiles, clothes, public buildings and spaceships, homes can stand a little competitive shake-up.”
Marcus called it freedom of expression. The rest of Highland Park called it an eyesore.
Preservationists have fought to save historic and architecturally significant homes in Highland Park in the past, but without legal protections, the battle is mostly symbolic.
The Cooleys have been known to favor large estates and traditional designs, and while they have not announced their plans, the purchase has sparked fears, and maybe some cheers, that demolition is imminent.
No demolition permits have been filed but in a town that values uniformity over individuality, the Mushroom House has always been an outlier. Its fate now rests in the hands of its new owners and a neighborhood that has never been particularly fond of it.
Real estate expert Douglas Newby, who specializes in historic and architecturally significant properties, sees this demolition trend as part of a larger pattern. He argues that buyers assembling multiple lots for massive estates don’t just erase unique homes, they disrupt the character of entire streets.
The biggest architectural threat is now coming from people who will cobble together several lots that have architecturally significant homes to build one huge house making all the other architecturally or historically significant homes on the street look now small and insignificant because they are dwarfed.
-Douglas Newby
