REST IN PEACE 10330 Strait Lane

It was someone's dream. A Dallas couple flush with success in the telecommunications industry hired one of the city's finest architects to create a French masterpiece. The architect was Robbie Fusch of Fusch-Serold & Partners. His firm took two years to design the Perrin home on the 10-acre Strait Lane site that had once been two separate estates.

George and Dominique Perrin never intended for their dream home to become as large as it grew: 73,746 square feet in total, including some 46,000 air-conditioned square feet. Seven garages, a wash bay for the cars, a natatorium (lap pool and volleyball pool), hand-scraped wood and limestone floors, a backyard lake "the ideas just kept coming.

The home was to be magnificent. Dominique, a petite brunette, is a collector of impeccable taste. The second-story gallery, which overlooked the massive great room, would feature a sweeping panorama of her decorative art and doll collections in floor-to-ceiling glass cases. The master suite, itself as big as a house at 3,000 square feet, was one of four bedrooms. The media/family room had 200-year-old timber beams that had been shipped from New England. Not only was the attic, where the deadly fire reportedly started, completely finished, but the home also had a full 17,000-square-foot basement and technical control center. Cost of the center, circular staircase: $300,000. Though the house would need a sophisticated staff for upkeep, the massive, imported dining room chandelier could be lowered for easy cleaning by means of a winch in the attic.

In August of 1997, George and Dominique sold their unfinished dream to Dallas land investor John Lau. The Perrins reportedly had $28 million invested in the home and property and had even purchased all of the furniture. They listed the property at $14 million. John offered about $8.5 million "cash "and it was a done deal. The Perrins walked away from almost $20 million and what had become a limestone albatross.

John felt he had a deal: buying a three-quarters-completed mansion for land value. There was no way he could lose. He also did not complete the mansion, figuring that whoever would pay double-digit millions for this property would likely want the pleasure of overseeing the finish-out. While Triomphe was on the market, Oprah Winfrey and European royalty toured as potential buyers.

Two years later, John sold his investment "in another cash sale "to Jean-Raymond Boulle for about $11 million. Jean-Raymond soon erected a dark fence around the property and began finishing the home. Dallas builder Jim Shaw worked on the home for a while; architects Carol Boerder-Snyder and her husband Will were hired to complete the mansion.

In came more imported marble, classical pilasters, paneling, and mahogany. Was it for sale or did Jean-Raymond plan to move into the home? His Dallas home on Beverly Drive was on the market. The architects, who were in the home two days before it burned, believed the Boulles were moving to Strait Lane. On June 10, Jean-Raymond’s attorneys took a Wall Street Journal reporter through the home for an upcoming story on ultra-luxurious homes. This one's price tag when completed in a few weeks: $44 million.

It was a cool evening on July 10. Early the next morning, about 1 o'clock, five years of dreams and world-class craftsmanship went up in flames as the biggest home in Dallas’ history, with a fully operational sprinkler system, burned to the ground. Smoke blanketed almost every neighborhood south of LBJ. The cinders glowed for days.