Scoop There It Is! Parade of Playhouses Entry Has What Kids Like

With their “Scoop There It Is” playhouse entry in this year’s Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses, the team of Austin Commercial and Corgan show their combined brilliance once again by proving they know just what kids want: ice cream, and a place to play shop. Or at least, that’s what my kids want. And the kids viewing the playhouses at this year’s event at Northpark Mall seem to agree.

I spoke with Corgan’s Warren Mortensen, and Sarah Meixner and Alfredo Cabrera from Austin Commercial about their popular design. “Our playhouse is truly designed with kids in mind — what kid doesn’t love ice cream?” said Cabrera.

The Inspiration

Mortensen said he wanted the playhouse to be like walking into a carton of ice cream that has its own ice cream shop inside. The scoop on top became an interior dome and an ice cream drip cornice on the side. Add to that the details of columns and footing of chocolate and a sleeve of ice cream cups of corrugated metal, and you have yourself one tasty playhouse.

The team says creativity like this flows well between the pairing of the design and construction companies each year, where Corgan brings the ideas and modeling to Austin Construction to discuss build-out possibilities.

“We meet and discuss what can and can’t be done. Usually there’s one idea that stands out and that’s what we go with,” said Mortensen.

Austin and Corgan have partnered on the Parade of Playhouses since 2020, so this is their 5th playhouse as a team. I asked if they have a favorite house over the years. Mortensen said after this year’s house he’d choose their first house as a team, “You Rock.”

“It was very complex geometry, triangulated — the whole form was triangulated, and I said ‘I think I can model it and document it, but it’s going to be hard to build,’ but then Austin, within a week had this welded up triangulated form that was exactly what I had modeled, and it was very impressive, so probably from a construction standpoint I really liked that one.”

Meixner said her favorite was a miniature version of Parkland Hospital that the team had created during Covid.

Austin Commercial has an even longer history with the Parade of Playhouses, going back to 2014. Meixner said, “We look forward to participating every year. We think [Dallas CASA] is a great organization, and we love supporting it. It’s a fun event, and we’re looking forward to doing it again next year.”

Explore more Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouse entries this year, including a Western Conference Finals champion Dallas Mavericks playhouse and a Highland Park High School CASA playhouse homage to University Park’s oldest home.

Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses continues through June 30, 2024 at NorthPark Center, 8687 N. Central Expy in Dallas.