Black's Beach landmark gets a concrete comeback
La Jolla's Legendary Mushroom House Is Getting a Long-Overdue Makeover
If you have ever hiked down to Black's Beach and spotted what looks like a Bond villain's cliffside lair jutting out of the rocks, you already know the Mushroom House. And now, after years of abandonment and a generous coating of graffiti, San Diego's most architecturally bizarre landmark is finally getting some love.
La Jolla-based CDC Construction has begun renovations on the structure, formally known as Bell's Pavilion, perched into the cliffs just south of Black's Beach beneath the Torrey Pines Gliderport. The work sparked alarm online when hikers and surfers noticed construction fencing going up and feared the worst, but there is no demolition coming. The Mushroom House is being saved.
The back story on this place is genuinely wild. Architect Dale Naegle designed the circular concrete pavilion in 1968 for Sam Bell of Bell's Potato Chips, who wanted a virtually indestructible guesthouse accessible from his clifftop estate via a 300-foot private tramway. The structure rests on a concrete column ten feet in diameter and was engineered to survive earthquakes, rockslides, and massive Pacific swells. It was built to outlast everything, and it basically has.
After Bell abandoned the property, the Pavilion became a destination for surfers using it as a landmark and graffiti artists treating it as a canvas. Its concrete bones proved more popular than ever, just not for their original purpose.
According to sources familiar with the project, the renovated structure may eventually serve as a lifeguard facility. The City of San Diego Lifeguards Division has not officially confirmed plans, but the prospect of San Diego's lifeguards operating out of an architectural icon carved into the cliffs above one of the country's most visited nude beaches is about as perfect a local story as you can get.
Sources: Fox 5 San Diego | SanDiegoVille | San Diego Union-Tribune | Yelp/Hidden San Diego