Weird Homes Tour – Austin

Mushroom House, the Nautlist, Sand Dollar House: whatever you want to call it, this Lake Travis home has been an Austin icon and a favorite of Lake Austin boaters since 1979.

Designed by famed Austin architect and Frank Loyd Wright apprentice, John Covert Watson, the Sand Dollar House best exemplifies the organic architecture movement of the 1970s. Watson sought to promote harmony between human habitation and the natural world through a variety of methods. First, the home embraces its surround environment with huge, blindless windows that give stunning 270° views of Lake Travis. Next, Watson rejected artificial straight lines for flowing and more organic feeling curvilinear walls. Finally, to top it all off (literally) the Sand Dollar House features, well, a huge sand dollar for its roof. Its teardrop skylights flood the home with light.

Originally built as home and studio for artist Eugenia Hunt in 1979, the Sand Dollar House has had a few owners in its lifetime.  Want to be its next owner? It’s currently for sale!