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A Look Inside Turtle Creek Boulevard

An insider’s guide to the high-rises along Turtle Creek Boulevard—as well as its famous (and infamous) residents.
By

The High Life
One of the toniest streets in the country, Turtle Creek Boulevard is as colorful and fascinating as the people who call it home. Allow us to dish the dirt.

 

The Mansion Residence
[ 2801 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1994
Architectural style: Mediterranean
Maintenance fee: If you have to ask, you cannot afford it (72 cents per square foot)
Price range: $3 million-plus
Notable tenants (past and present): Patsy Lacy Griffith, Patty and Bo Pilgrim, Nancy Hamon, Shirley Pollock, Joan and Irvin Levy, Dr. Charles Key, the ex Mrs. Susan Key (they’re separated by 10 floors), Mary Ann and Dick Cree, and Keith and Cheryl Hughes
Did you know? This is the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees, the crème de la crème. All of the high-rises on Turtle Creek aspire to the service level of the 23-unit Mansion Residences, which is physically linked to a five-star hotel and four-star restaurant. (Yes, Mansion room service 24/7.) No wonder it’s called the Best Little Old Folks Home in Dallas.

 

The Renaissance on Turtle Creek
[ 3225 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Converted in: 2001
Architectural style: Postmodern
Maintenance fee: 29 cents per square foot
Price range: $99,000-$400,000
Notable tenants (past and present): Erin Downey, Tina Martinez (Mom and Dad are up at the Warrington), and Brian Ching of Bachelor fame (or infamy)
Did you know? A Turtle Creek starter building, this 603-unit apartment conversion was bought by Crescent Heights Development two years ago. Tenants tend to be young professionals or empty nesters fleeing the family pad. Traveling execs buy the tiny studios (600 square feet) for a crash pad in town—it’s almost cheaper than a hotel, and the views are to-die-for.

 

 

The Mayfair at Turtle Creek
[ 3401 Lee Parkway ]
Built in: 2000
Architectural style: Italianate
Maintenance fee: 36.5 cents per square foot
Price range: $275,000-$2.7 million
Notable tenants (past and present): Rena Pederson, Maurine and Roland Dickey, and Bill and Mary Ceverah
Did you know? Purists may have issues with the Lee Parkway address, but there are those who say this is the building with the best future. One owner turned the 1,400-square-foot unit below their 4,000-square-foot penthouse into a wine cellar. Where else would you put a cellar?

 

 

The Vendôme 
[ 3505 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 2002
Architectural style: French
Maintenance fee: 29 cents per square foot, including utilities
Price range: $400,000-$1.2 million for finished units, $4 million for penthouse shells
Notable tenants (past and present): Just about everyone who lived in Highland Park or Preston Hollow 10 years ago, plus Neal Stewart, Lyda Hill, Ethel and Eugene Zale, and Margo and Bill Winspear, who can look out their window and see their new performing arts center
Did you know? This is Realtor Judy Pittman’s piéce de résistance. Built on the last piece of dirt with a Turtle Creek address and full view of Dallas, Vendôme sports the largest mansard roof in existence—and looks like a grand French chateau stretched to 21 stories. There are no hallways, but there are discrete, private downstairs entrances to the A, B, and C units. Elevators from the basement garage lead directly to apartments, so no one sees any comings and goings, which is why it’s also referred to as The Mistress Building.

 

The Claridge  
[ 3510 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1983
Architectural style: Contemporary
Maintenance fee: 54 cents per square foot
Price range: $625,000-$2.9 million
Notable tenants (past and present): Bob and Jan Crandall, former Soviet ambassador Robert Strauss and wife Helen, Darryl Snaden, Kim Schlegel, Su-Su and Jerry Meyer, Vera and Lawrence Herkimer, Boone and Nelda Pickens, and the occasional member of the Strauss family
Did you know? The Claridge actually sits in the middle of Lemmon Avenue and had to petition for its TC address, but it’s lived up to the billing. This is the place where you dress to go out the door, and it’s maintained so meticulously that employees pick up litter three times a day on the grounds. Super security. Tom Ridge, take note. The Claridge wrote the book on security.

 

3525 
[ 3525 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1957
Architectural style: Midcentury modern
Maintenance fee: 54 cents per square foot, including utilities
Price range: $250,000-$950,000
Notable tenants (past and present): Greer Garson Fogelson, Patsy Lacy Griffith (before she moved into the Mansion Residences), Dottie and Bob Goddard, Pat Patterson, Sarah Norton, Nancy and Captain A.W. Chandler, Colonel James P. Caston, some Meyersons, and Dr. Sam Hamra’s mother
Did you know? Also known as The Temple, 3525 was the first high-rise built on Turtle Creek. In the 50s and 60s, everyone who was anyone lived here. It may be a Howard Meyer masterwork with architecturally significant poured-concrete grid work, but Realtors have a hard time presenting it because of the low ceilings and centralized heat and air conditioning. Still, it has great cachet.

 

 

The Gold Crest 
[ 3601 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1964
Architectural style: Art deco
Maintenance fee: 47 cents per square foot, including utilities
Price range: $155,000-$850,000
Notable tenants (past and present): Mary Nell Rogers, widow of Ralph Rogers; Freda Stern; Betty Blake; Mark Seal; and Judy and Irwin Wasserman
Did you know? You need to pass an IQ test to get into this one. An impeccably run older building that appeals to the intelligentsia and many an art patron, perhaps because of the deco influence from architect George Dahl. Neal Stewart recently returned the lobby to its Knoll origins. The building has smaller units—only 1,200-3,100 square feet—so many owners buy two and combine them.

 

 

Turtle Creek North 
[ 3701 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1963
Architectural style: 60s Modern
Maintenance fee: 47 cents per square foot, including utilities
Price range: $120,000-$1 million
Notable tenants (past and present): Carol Reed, Dr. Thomas Sakler, and Realtor Carolyn Shamis, who has her office on the first floor
Did you know? Another starter building with a nod to retirees who don’t mind the two-pipe heating system. Only 13 stories, but the floor plans are more generous than Twenty One, and you can get in to the 113 unit structure for less than $150,000. Service plus: doorman S.C. has been there for 34 years.

 

 

The Warrington On Turtle Creek
[ 3831 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1981
Architectural style: Contemporary
Maintenance fees: 46 cents per square foot
Price range: $200,000-$1.75 million
Notable tenants (past and present): Eric Jonsson, Judy Pittman, Michael Jordan, Dr. Joe Goldstein, and True and Elizabeth Knowles
Did you know? The Warrington is notable for the fact that no one really knows anyone who lives there permanently, anyway. Major VIPs have stayed there along the way, and these days this is the place to stay while your McMansion is being remodeled. Maybe that’s why it sort of looks like a high-rise hotel.

 

 

Twenty One Turtle Creek
[ 3883 Turtle Creek Boulevard ]
Built in: 1963
Architectural style: Modern, sort of
Maintenance fees: 37 to 47 cents per square feet, including utilities
Price range: $90,000-$250,000
Notable tenants (past and present): Jennifer Flowers (while Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas), James McEnroe, and Charles Birdsong
Did you know? This starter building—also called the Homo Hilton—is definitely the entry pad with panache. Started as HUD apartments, then converted in 1981 to condos, the structure still resembles an urban housing development in Chicago, minus, of course, the roaches. Got the name because it sits on 21 acres, which used to be the property of Jesuit Catholic School before the campus was relocated to North Dallas.

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