Alan Peppard

Just north of the Dallas Theater Center, there is a hidden street called Turtle Creek Drive where some beautiful homes are perched on a hill above the banks of Turtle Creek. The only problem for the few homes actually on the bank is that once every five years or so, a rainstorm right out of Genesis will make the creek swell to biblical proportions.

Developer Braden Power has overcome that concern at the new personal Shangri-La he built there. With the help of noted architect Cole Smith, Braden raised the property out of the flood plain and even built a promontory out into the creek, which now holds a fireplace and a cozy sitting area where one can enjoy the secret setting in the heart of the city.

Those in the know guesstimate that about $13 million has been put into the house, which sits on the former estate of the late Dallas economist John Sartain and his wife, Merrily. More than a decade ago, the Sartains' home on the site flooded and was torn down.

But Braden sits high above it all with five bedrooms, six baths, two indoor pools and an outdoor infinity pool. The house borrows styles from Rome, Spain and Algeria, but at its heart, it's a contemporary dwelling.

When not finishing out his dream house, Braden works with his brother, Craig, at their firm Power Properties, redeveloping apartments on Gaston Avenue and homes in Lakewood, as well as doing condo conversions and town home developments.

Next door to the Power home on Turtle Creek Drive, oilman, author and film producer Robert Edsel is still working on his dream home with the perfectionist zeal only he can bring to a project.

Robert made his fortune drilling for oil in Texas' Austin chalk. He later moved to Italy, but returned to Dallas and wrote the book Rescuing Da Vinci, about World War II "monuments men" who rescued art plundered by the Nazis. He then helped produce a film on the same topic, The Rape of Europa.

In the midst of all this, he bought the landmark Turtle Creek home of Dallas businessman John Ridings Lee and his wife, Carole. For the last couple of years, Robert has been remodeling the 1916 mansion famous for its distinctive blue-tile roof.

Restaurateur Alberto Lombardi is already drawing a high-profile crowd to his new Italian seafood restaurant, Pescabar, located in the former Ferre space in West Village.

Among the recent visitors have been West Village co-developer Henry S. Miller III and his wife, Angie; chefs Dean Fearing and Avner Samuel, both former executive chefs at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek before opening their own places; and radio veteran Ron Chapman, who can currently be heard nationally sitting in for Paul Harvey.

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