Giant Ants Star in Bellagio's Spring Wonderland

Celebrity Designer

Stephen Stefanou’s

New Epic Display Evokes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Colonized by Ants

DALLAS, March 15, 2010 – The Bellagio Resort & Casino invites visitors to fall down the rabbit hole March 18h when its conservatory and botanical garden is transformed into Alice’s Wonderland……Las Vegas style! Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s beloved tale, renowned designer Stephen Stefanou, the master of monumental installations, has created a garden where visitors will feel like they have shared the magical liquid that reduced Alice to Lilliputian size.

As visitors stroll through the conservatory, they will see among the 15-ft tall mushrooms and 18-ft jonquils a colony of 10-ft long ants along with their Queen. Weighing more than four tons, this imposing monarch is 24-ft long, 19-ft wide and 7-ft tall. As she sits regally watching other ants at work and play, her royal back offers a wonderful perch for visitors to have a perfect photo opportunity. Keeping the ants company in this enchanted garden are king-size animated butterflies, jumbo bumble bees and giant botanical frogs and snails frolicking among vibrant flowers and lush foliage. In addition to a 15-ft tall long-fallen flower pot, a 28-ft tall hand spade and flowing water spheres, is a charming leaf fountain filling a pond with ‘rain’ water.

Says Stephen Stefanou, president and design director of Dallas-based Design Solutions, of the 2010 Spring Wonderland, “Ancient cultures told legends of huge ants that mined and guarded gold in the desert. What creatures are more fitting for Las Vegas, where fortunes are won every day?”

American artist Susan P. Cochran sculpted the statuary bronze ants with amazing scale and detail. Cochran’s inspiration for this exhilarating collection comes from her fascination with flora and fauna and the social nature of ants. “Ants have been living in colonies for more than a million years, supported by their instincts to cooperate and abilities to solve complex problems,” said Cochran.

Stefanou is the exclusive agent for the collection. It will be at Bellagio through September and then will travel for two years to California, Canada and Texas.

Bellagio’s 2010 Spring Wonderland is open to the public seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Admission is free.

About Design Solutions
Design Solutions is the United States’ premier designer of year-round and seasonal displays and sculptural art and is known for its unexpectedly large-scale objects in imaginative installations. It integrates client needs with artistic conceptual goals to create must-see destinations such as the monumental holiday display at Rockefeller Center in New York and several displays per year at Bellagio including the Chinese New Year Celebration.

In Las Vegas, Design Solutions’ cutting-edge creations have been seen at Fashion Show Mall, Mirage Casino & Hotel, the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, TI (Treasure Island) Hotel & Casino and the Venetian Resort & Casino. Most recently, Design Solutions created a spectacular display for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the City of Richmond to celebrate the its prolific cranberry industry. The iconic Canadian Olympic Committee logo became a classic cranberry bog the size of a football field filled with 13,000,000 cranberries that was positioned adjacent to the Ozone, the official Olympic celebration site.

American Express, AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, the Trump Organization, other major corporations, property management groups, municipal governments and private individuals are among Design Solution’s clients. The company also creates must-see destinations in Europe and the United Arab Emirates.