Bellagio's Garden's Still has its 'WOW'

Los Angeles Times: The Movable Buffet by Richard Abowitz
At 2am Sept 12, a Sunday morning, the Bellagio ropes off the resort's immensely popular garden. For the next week, about 115 people work in shifts , 24/7, to transform the 7300 square feet of planting area from the summer show to the fall display.Tourists gather behind the velvet rope to photograph the changeover and ogle renderings of the finished design.

If slightly less well known than Bellagio's jetting waters out front, Garcia still equates the garden, located near the elaborate Dale Chihuly in the lobby, to the famed fountains. "The WOW factor of the fountains outside has to be matched by something as exciting as the garden inside," Garcia says.

The eye-cathcer of the new show ia a set of three gigantic tre sculptures---each about 25-ft tall and weighting roughly 3300 pouonds, made of tightly wovern willow stretched over metal--provided by Design Solutions, a premier visual display & design firm in Dallas, TX.

Now Arriving on JetBlue Airways:

.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a blueberry juice cocktail bottle

designed and built by

Design Solutions, Dallas, TX.

Travelers at New York's John F. Kennedy International (JFK) airport got a big surprise today as crewmembers from hometown airline JetBlue Airways marshaled in the arrival of a 24,000 lb, 38 ft tall blueberry juice cocktail bottle with the airline's latest Airbus A320 livery design, "Blueberries," to commemorate the introduction of Ocean Spray's first Blueberry product line.

The new line of products which includes Blueberry and Blueberry Pomegranate Juice Cocktails, Craisins® Blueberry Juice Infused Dried Cranberries, Blueberry Sugar-Free Drink Mixes and fresh blueberries is a first for the juice category leader. Throughout the month of July, customers onboard JetBlue flights will have an opportunity to sample the tasty new line of juice and Craisins® dried cranberries as part of the airline's complimentary line-up of unlimited name brand snacks and drinks.

"We took the best of what we do for the cranberry and brought it to a new superfruit," said Larry Martin, Vice President of Marketing for Ocean Spray. "Now consumers can enjoy the refreshing taste of summer-ripened blueberries year round."

"JetBlue is constantly looking for ways to enrich the customer experience – on the ground and in the air," said Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing and commercial strategy for JetBlue Airways. "The partnership with Ocean Spray allows us to work creatively with another leading brand to provide an experience that goes above and beyond our customers' expectations."
Ocean Spray's Out of the Blue Getaways – Sip & Win!
Juice lovers can see how they measure up to the larger-than-life bottle at New York's Greeley Square Park (between 6th and Broadway, and 33rd and 32nd streets), and have an opportunity to win one of 250 prizes from Ocean Spray's custom luggage carousel. Prizes include roundtrip JetBlue travel to any of its 61 destinations across the U.S., Caribbean and Latin and South Americas, JetBlue Gift Cards ranging from $25-$100, ShopBlue merchandise and Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice products.
"What better way to kick off the summer than with an out of the blue reward from Ocean Spray?" added Martin.
When: Tuesday, June 15, 12-1 pm
Where: Greeley Square Park (between 6th and Broadway, and 33rd and 32nd streets)
Details: Open to the public

Bottle Fun Facts
The average 64 ounce bottle of Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice Cocktail is 10 inches tall. Check out the stunning proportions of Ocean Spray's latest attraction below:
38 ft – the height of an Airbus A320 aircraft or a four story building
24,000 lbs – the average weight of a city bus
54,000 gallons – the number of gallons of Blueberry Juice Cocktail the bottle could hold if filled
Ocean Spray's New Blueberry Product Line
Enjoy the taste of fresh-picked blueberries year-round with these juicy new products:
Blueberry and Blueberry Pomegranate Juice Cocktail – Available in original and diet, each eight ounce glass offers a full day's supply of Vitamin C. Juice lovers will adore the diet variety which offers the refreshing taste of blueberries with only five little calories per serving.
Craisins® Blueberry Juice Infused Dried Cranberries – Made from real fruit and have good-for-you fiber, new Craisins® blueberry dried cranberries are a tasty, juice infused, on-the-go snack.
Blueberry Sugar-Free Drink Mixes – Available in Blueberry Lemonade and Blueberry Pomegranate flavors. Sugar-Free Drink Mixes are a nutritious, deliciously flavored drink alternative packed with 100 percent daily value of Vitamin C and only five calories per serving.
Fresh Blueberries – Summer-ripened blueberries rank high among traditional fruits in naturally occurring antioxidants. Look for Ocean Spray fresh blueberries in the produce department year-round.

About Ocean Spray
Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry growers in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and other parts of Canada as well as more than 50 Florida grapefruit growers. Ocean Spray was formed 80 years ago by three cranberry growers from Massachusetts and New Jersey. Florida grapefruit growers joined the Cooperative in 1976. Ocean Spray is North America's leading producer of canned and bottled juices and juice drinks, and has been the best-selling brand name in the canned and bottled juice category since 1981. Ocean Spray posted fiscal 2009 sales of $2 billion.
About JetBlue Airways
Voted "Most Eco-Friendly Airline" by Zagat's Airline Survey in 2008 and 2009, New York-based JetBlue Airways has created a new airline category based on value, service and style. Known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares, JetBlue is now pleased to offer customers Lots of Legroom and super-spacious Even More Legroom seats. JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on aircraft "BetaBlue," a first among U.S. domestic airlines. JetBlue is also America's first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue's control. JetBlue serves 61 cities with 650 daily flights. New service to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC and to Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT begins in November. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JET-BLUE (1-800-538-2583).

Fantastical Oversized Ants Celebrate Beauty & Whimsy

Bright Blooms and Fantastical Oversized Ants Celebrate Beauty and Whimsy of Mother Nature's Busiest Season

LAS VEGAS, March 22 /PRNewswire/ — In celebration of spring, Bellagio's Conservatory & Botanical Gardens features a spectacular floral exhibition filled with vivid blooms and a magnificent one-of-a-kind series of large-scale bronze sculptural ants. Inspired by the social nature of these industrious creatures, American artist Susan P. Cochran created a seven-member colony that represents the ideals of cooperation and teamwork.

Four enchanting gardens, created by Stephen Stefanou of Design Solutions with Bellagio's talented horticulture staff, provide a lush landscape for these intricately detailed creatures. Resting below two towering yellow jonquils, a queen ant allows guests to climb onto her back for a unique photo opportunity. The stunning 8,500-pound queen provides an ideal vantage point for viewing an exhibit of botanical snails and bumblebees as well as brightly colored tulips, poppies, daisies, mums and daffodils.
Steps away, three 10-foot-long ants can be found attentively preparing for the warm months ahead at the mouth of a 15-foot-tall flower pot, overflowing with rainbow-hued blooms. A beautiful spring butterfly rests atop the oversized pot while a towering 28-foot spade stands nearby. Overhead, bumblebees made of preserved sunflowers pause mid-flight in their tireless search for nectar.

Close-by another first for Bellagio's Conservatory, five giant mushrooms – ranging in size from 5 to 15 feet tall – provide a natural canopy for the pair of 6-feet-tall ants found communicating below.

A jardin a la francaise, or French garden, completes this fantasy botanical wonderland. Within its fragrant symmetrical borders, a large anthill is flanked by two water spheres. A 3-foot-long ant is seen crawling into the golden sunlight from its earthen tunnel as its industrious counterpart works nearby.

Throughout this mesmerizing exhibit, botany fans will be delighted to find a rare exhibition of 10 potted olive trees, each more than 100 years old. Over the years, these ancient trees have been carefully sculptured into oversized bonsai presentations.

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.

Large Bronze Ants at the Bellagio Resort & Casino

Ants Headed to Vegas!

Palm Beach Daily News

Large Bronze Ant sculptures by Palm Beach artist Susan P. Cochran are loaded into a tractor-trailer for thier trip to the Bellagio Resot & Casino Las Vegas. The Ants will be part of their Spring/Summer garden show designed by Stephen Stefanou of Design Solutions/ Dallas, TX. Show opens March 18th.

USA Today: Design Unleashed

Olympic Food Sculpture

British Columbia is not only the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It's also the third largest cranberry grower in North American, behind Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Unless you follow cranberries, you probably did not know that.
But knowing that, what else would the zany cranberry growers of British Columbia do with their cranberries to honor the 2010 Olympic competitors? Why, build cranberry monuments, of course! Like these cranberry-filled football stadium-sized logos: the international Olympic Rings and the Canadian Maple Leaf logo.
The Olympic Rings and Maple Leaf were sculpted by DESIGN SOLUTIONS (Stephen Stefanou) and cranberry-filled in Richmond, BC, a suberb of Vancouver, so one can only hope that some of the Olympians get to see these beautiful tributes. Hopefully, the tributes are in the flight path of the aerial security, so those folks will see them.
I guess there were enough cranberries left over, after the Olympic Rings and Maple Leaf, to create a cranberry moat around Richmond city hall. Are those some big red jelly fish made from cranberry Jello?
According to USA Today, the cranberries were harvested in October and November and then frozen and shipped to Richmond. They were just thawed and poured into form a few days ago.
I hope there is a way to clean these berries and make them into juice or something edible. Can anyone even guess how much antioxidant power is in 46,000 square feet of cranberries?

Chinese New Year 2010 at the Palazzo/Venetian Resort

TIGER AT THE PALAZZO RESORT

( 14-FT LONG X 7.5-FT TALL)

ROARING IN Strip Resorts Mark Chinese Year of the Tiger with Events & Decorations by SONYA PADGETT LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL February 11, 2010
If you want to get an idea of how important Chinese New Year is to Las Vegas, just visit any major Strip resort on Sunday.
There will be no shortage of lion dances, red lanterns, I Ching coins, citrus trees, banners, Asian dining options and entertainment.
That day marks the beginning of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese zodiac and the start of Las Vegas' two-week courtship of the Asian market that travels here each year for the holiday. The Chinese New Year is a 15-day holiday set by a lunar calendar. It usually falls in January or February.
The Asian market has long been important to Las Vegas, but only in recent years have local resorts enriched their offerings to appeal directly to tourists who celebrate the holiday with a trip to Vegas, resort representatives say.
In addition to the colorful and traditional dragon and lion dances, resorts now offer dining specials and book Asian entertainment, such as the group Grasshopper at Caesars Palace or entertainer Sam Hui at MGM Grand.
"I think over time, Chinese New Year has come to rank up there with some of the bigger events that take place in Las Vegas," says Ron Reese, spokesman for The Venetian and Palazzo.
While it's hard to predict percentages, resort representatives expect to see an uptick in international visitors during the next two weeks, especially since that market has been less affected by the recession.
"Las Vegas is going to see a tremendous Chinese New Year's this year," predicts Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace. Caesars has been marking Chinese New Year for 35 years. "I would say at this point Chinese New Year is probably the most significant event in Las Vegas" and gaming revenues for the month should reflect that.
"It's just a great and growing market for the city of Las Vegas," Selesner says. "We're not the only ones who have recognized this."
This year, Harrahs will have lion dances at all properties, Selesner says. Nearly every major resort is decorated with traditional Asian symbols, another sign of the growing popularity of the holiday, he adds.
The Venetian and Palazzo have an Asian theme with citrus trees, red envelopes, lanterns and I Ching coins, among other things. The centerpiece of the decor is a 14-foot tiger (designed by Stephen Stefanou with Design Solutions ) in the atrium gardens at the Shoppes at The Palazzo.
"We brought a feng shui consultant in to talk about what to do," says Audra Danzak, vice president of floral and horticulture for Palazzo and The Venetian.
Some of the suggestions made were to ensure the water in ponds was still and that metal be used in certain displays.
Every decoration has a meaning and purpose to the Chinese and their placements can have an impact. For instance, bamboo and other elements were arranged in groups of eight, a number that is seen as lucky, Danzak explains.
They wanted the tiger designed by Stephen Stefanou , which took eight weeks to make, to project a proud manner but not appear too fierce.
Saturday at 3 p.m., a ceremonial dragon and lion dance is scheduled to start at The Venetian's porte-cochere and end at the upper Palazzo porte-cochere.
Also at 3 p.m. Saturday, MGM Grand will host a lion and dragon dance in the valet area and porte-cochere.
At 1 p.m. Sunday, a dragon dance will take place at The Venetian porte-cochere, wind through the casino and end at the Palazzo porte-cochere.
Also Sunday, lion and dragon dances will be at The Mirage at 3 p.m., Bellagio at 7 p.m. and Mandalay Bay at 10 p.m. The dances will be in the resorts' porte-cocheres.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aria will host a lion and dragon dance in the porte-cochere.
Chinatown also will mark the holiday with a day of entertainment and events. There will be a variety of Asian cuisines, lion and dragon dances, martial arts demonstrations and other activities.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 21 at Chinatown Plaza, 4255 Spring Mountain Road. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children ages 6 to 12 and free for children 5 and younger.
Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@review journal.com or 702-380-4564.