- Champ d'Or Estate
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The Champ d'Or estate is a baroque French chateau located in Hickory Creek, Texas. Inspired by chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte [1] near Paris, France, the chateau situated at 1851 Turbeville Road, in Denton County, Champ d'Or—literally, "Field of Gold," named after the Goldfields, who built the house in 2002—echoes 17th century masterpiece architecture and design.
Champ d'Or was in many ways one of the more unusual architectural works in North Texas, featured not only in countless news articles[2], most notably being Forbes Magazine[3], but also gaining notoriety through its appearance in several books on French architecture and interior design.[4]. Champ d'Or's grandiose envelopment of much of the Hickory Creek landscape has made the chateau something of a tourist attraction.
The Chateau
Champ d'Or was born out of five years of meticulous planning[5], construction and craftsmanship[6]--using materials from all over the nation[7]. The 25-acre (100,000 m2) estate houses the approximately 36,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) mansion, an adjacent one-and-a-half-acre lake, formal gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a tennis court, a pool/tennis house and two matching guardhouses. The sprawling house features an iconic dome with a ceiling height of 78 feet (24 m); a ballroom with mirrors patterned after Versailles; a garden room where windows descend electronically, opening to a veranda which seats 450 for dinner; a two-story Chanel-styled closet in the master; a theater; a bowling alley, and a racquetball court.
Controversy
Because of its size, soaring price tag[8], and what critics see as a gaudy interior, Champ d'Or has been depicted as one of the region's most glaring displays of wealth-driven foppery. In April 2009, D Magazine named the property "The Biggest Little Teardown in Texas" [9], scathingly writing:
In the distance, you’ll see something so huge and so incongruous in its French-baroque-meets-Plano-McMansion mashup that it seems more hallucination than house.
Indeed, the chateau's ravishing luxury, marble floors, gold plated elevator, and hand-carved spiral stair case consistently repels prospective buyers. The house has passed from listing agent to listing agent, from 2003–2009, with no serious offers. As Alex Roostaei[10] noted:
[The Goldfields] even tried to donate it but the cost to run the place is so high no one could take it.
References
- ^ The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a famous French chateau located in Maincy, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It was built from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle (Belle-Ile-en-Mer), Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV.
- ^ See http://www.luxist.com/2004/10/15/champ-dor/ and http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/DN-updatemansion_30met.ART.East.Edition1.4c10789.html and
- ^ http://www.forbes.com/2006/01/19/real-estate-celebrity-cx_sc_0120movers.html
- ^ Among these was Betty Lou Phillip's book, "Unmistakably French," in which the author devoted 10 pages to Champ d'Or http://bettylouphillips.com/books.htm
- ^ champdorestate.com
- ^ The Dome particularly was mimicked after early to mid-century French architecture Vaux-le-Vicomte
- ^ http://www.luxist.com/2007/05/11/a-new-look-at-champ-dor-estate-of-the-day/
- ^ The home has been listed multiple times for sale, with prices ranging between 60 million to 27.5 million. http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/2009/05/03/The_Biggest_Little_Teardown_in_Texas.aspx
- ^ http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/2009/05/03/The_Biggest_Little_Teardown_in_Texas.aspx
- ^ http://dallasdirt.dmagazine.com/2009/06/05/champ-dor-changes-agents-now-on-market-for-only-27-million/
Categories:- Houses in Texas
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