Diana Strauss, widow of Dallas developer Richard Strauss, has put her Old Preston Hollow estate at 5205 Park Lane on the market for $17.8 million. The 11,331-square-foot home sits on 2.3 acres at the corner of Park Lane and Ravine Drive, and it has already become Dallas's most expensive residential listing to hit the market in August, according to HAR data.
The listing was officially registered in the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Multiple Listing Service on August 17, with an exact asking price of $17,750,000 under MLS ID 21361620, according to Coldwell Banker listing records. As The Real Deal reports, the property has been on the market for about ten days and works out to roughly $1,566 per square foot. The home includes seven bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms.
Built in 2000, the estate was designed by Richard Drummond Davis, an architect who earned a Master of Architecture from Princeton, studying under Michael Graves before founding his Dallas firm to focus on classical, European-inspired luxury estates. Davis, who has completed more than 1,600 luxury residential designs over his career, later co-founded Harper + Drummond Davis Architects in June 2025, according to CandysDirt.com's coverage of the firm's launch. The home in Preston Hollow's Dragert subdivision carries his signature touches: an iron front door styled after a private Roman estate, French-sourced mantles, 19th-century doors, and a flagstone approach framed by mature live oaks, per Northern Crain Realty's listing description.
Grounds Shaped by a Dallas Landscape Legend
The 2.3-acre grounds were designed by Naud Burnett II, a pioneer of Southwestern landscape architecture who founded national fern supplier Casa Flora in 1966 and designed portions of the Dallas Arboretum, including its Color Garden and Fern Dell. Over a 50-year career, Burnett earned more than 20 landscape design awards, according to background compiled by Texas A&M University's College of Architecture. Inside the estate, per The Real Deal's reporting, buyers will find a paneled library with a wet bar, garden rooms, a climate-controlled wine room, and a balcony overlooking the grounds.
Outdoor amenities include a quatrefoil-shaped pool, a cabana with a kitchenette and bath, and an outdoor kitchen built around a wood-burning oven. Listing agent Erin Mathews of Allie Beth Allman & Associates, who represents Diana Strauss, described the home as having timeless qualities and beautiful landscape architecture, and said the property draws interest from both young families and empty nesters. Diana Strauss did not immediately respond to a phone call about the listing, The Real Deal reported.
A Family Name Tied to Dallas Real Estate and Civic Life
Richard Strauss founded Republic Property Group in 1967, building it from a nationwide developer into one of North Texas's premier master-planned community builders. Per his obituary, the firm's landmark projects around North Texas included Stonebridge Ranch, Lake Forest, and the Claridge Condominiums, alongside later work on the 7,200-acre Walsh community in Fort Worth and Light Farms in Celina, according to the Dallas Business Journal's account of the firm's history. Richard Strauss, who died in 2024, was the nephew of Annette Strauss, Dallas's first elected female mayor, who served from 1987 to 1991. His uncle, Theodore H. “Ted” Strauss, a Bear Stearns senior executive, helped found the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at UT Austin in 2000, according to the Moody College of Communication.
The Park Lane property itself has a backstory predating the Strausses' ownership. Per a 1998 D Magazine feature cited by The Real Deal, Richard Strauss had sought the property before Bobby Goldstein acquired it, reportedly offering an amount rumored at about $1.7 million. And back in 1989, Diana Strauss was described as a hostess you can't say no to, per the same feature. The neighborhood's pedigree extends to its current residents as well: deed records cited by The Real Deal show neighboring homes on the street belong to Harry Longwell, a former director of Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Harlan Korenvaes, founder of HBK.
Estate Row Keeps Testing Dallas's Ceiling
Real estate agent Douglas Newby told The Real Deal that the home and its land could not be replicated for the listing price, a claim consistent with the broader dynamics reshaping Preston Hollow's largest lots. Market data for the 12 months ending in June showed a median sales price of just $1.295 million across Preston Hollow, according to Homes.com, underscoring the gulf between typical neighborhood homes and multi-acre compounds along Park Lane. Listing brokerage Allie Beth Allman & Associates posted a company-record $1 billion in sales volume in the first quarter of 2026 alone, a pace tracked by CandysDirt.com that reflects continued momentum at the top of the DFW luxury market.
The Park Lane listing joins a run of eight-figure estates that have recently tested what Dallas buyers are willing to pay. A newly built 16,600-square-foot estate at 10010 Strait Lane hit the market for $25 million in March, a listing Hoodline previously covered as part of Preston Hollow's active pocket of estate-row sales. Property tax pressure has climbed alongside those price tags, too — Dallas Central Appraisal District data released this year showed valuation spikes across North Dallas and Preston Hollow, with some neighboring 75230 clusters seeing appraisal jumps as high as 41%.
