DALLAS — Billionaire Andy Beal demolished a 112-year-old historic Highland Park mansion earlier this year and plans to build a new home there. Now, he wants to change Highland Park zoning requirements to build the home he wants on the property.
Beal, a banker who’s topped Forbes lists of the richest men in North Texas in recent years, notified town officials that he plans to build a new home where the 1912 Italian Renaissance-style mansion once stood at the corner of Preston Road and Beverly Drive.
Beal, who bought the property in 2021, wanted the new home to have a dome-shaped structure called a cupola, according to a request filed with the town’s zoning commission. The house he wants to build includes a 65-foot-tall cupola, but the zoning for the property only allows for cupolas and other architectural features to be 55 feet tall. The issue was set to come before Highland Park’s zoning commission Wednesday, but the meeting will be rescheduled to January, according to town filings and the historic preservation group Preservation Park Cities.
The 1912 mansion was designed by Hubbell & Greene Architects, known for designing the Neiman Marcus building and the Arts District mansion, formerly known as the Belo Mansion.
Among the notable previous owners of the mansion at the corner of Preston Road and Beverly Drive are the late Edwin L. Cox Sr., for late oilman for whom SMU’s business school is named.
Cox reportedly bought the home in the ‘70s. Before that, the mansion was the home of socialite Susie Rose Lloyd.
In recent years, Preservation Park Cities has sought to turn the tide of demolishing historic homes in Highland Park and University Park to make way for new ones by compiling a list of the ‘top 100’ most historically and architecturally significant homes in the Park Cities.
