Champ d'Or Estate

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The Champ d'Or estate is a pseudo-French Baroque residential building located in Hickory Creek, Texas. Inspired by Vaux-le-Vicomte^[a] near Paris, France.^{[citation needed]} The building situated at 1851 Turbeville Road, in Denton County, Champ d'Or—literally, "Field of Gold," from the surname of Alan and Shirley Goldfield, who built the house in 2002s 17th century architecture and design.^{[citation needed]}

Champ d'Or was one of the more unusual architectural works in North Texas, featured not only in countless news articles,^[1][2] most notably being Forbes Magazine,^[3] but also gaining notoriety through its appearance in at least one book on French architecture and interior design.^[4] Champ d'Or's dominance of the Hickory Creek landscape^{[citation needed]} has made the place of a tourist attraction.^{[citation needed]} The estate has been re branded as "The Olana" and is now a wedding venue under Walters Wedding Estates.^[5]

Champ d'Or took five years to plan and construct,^[6] using materials from all over the nation.^{[citation needed]} The 25-acre (100,000 m²) estate^{[citation needed]} includes the 48,000-square-foot (4,500 m²) mansion,^[6] an adjacent one-and-a-half-acre lake,^{[citation needed]} formal gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming area,^{[citation needed]} a tennis court, a tennis house^{[citation needed]} and two small and symmetrical guard buildings.^{[citation needed]} The sprawling house features a dome with a ceiling height of 78 feet (24 m);^{[citation needed]} a ballroom with Versailles-style mirrors;^{[citation needed]} a garden room with windows which descend electronically,^{[citation needed]} opening to a veranda which seats 450 for dinner;^{[citation needed]} a two-story Chanel-styled closet in the master;^{[citation needed]} a theater;^{[citation needed]} a bowling alley,^{[citation needed]} and a racquetball court.^{[citation needed]}

Because of its size, soaring price tag (The home has been listed for sale multiple times, with prices ranging between 60 million and 27.5 million},^[7] 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",^[7] 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.

The chateau's ornate design, including marble floors, gold plated elevator, and hand-carved spiral staircase did not appeal to prospective buyers for several years. The house passed from listing agent to listing agent, from 2003 to 2009, with no serious offers.^[8]

In April 2012, Champ d'Or Estate sold to the highest bidder through a luxury real estate auction by Concierge Auctions, a national luxury real estate auction firm.^[9] Following 433 auction inquiries,^{[citation needed]} over 500 showings and over 10,000 website visitors,^{[citation needed]} the estate, named Champ d'Or, which translates to "Field of Gold", was sold in cooperation with listing agent Joan Eleazer^{[citation needed]} of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty^{[citation needed]} and the buyer's agent, Clay Stapp.^{[citation needed]}

• Images of Champ d'Or with Google Search

33°07′30″N 97°03′15″W / 33.1250°N 97.0542°W / 33.1250; -97.0542