Outdoor Fireplace Photo Gallery Brings Outdoor Living Design Ideas to Life

Homeowners, designers and builders across the United States are beginning to incorporate outdoor fireplaces into their landscape designs. The Concrete Network's online outdoor fireplace photo gallery offers an extensive collection of photos exhibiting various concrete outdoor fireplace design options.
Yucaipa, CA (PRWEB) June 23, 2006 'C As temperatures begin the upward climb across the country, the appeal of outdoor entertaining has also begun to rise. Outdoor fireplaces have become a staple of outdoor living spaces. Homeowners, designers and builders are turning to The Concrete Network, the largest and most comprehensive source for concrete information, online outdoor fireplace photo gallery for a collection of photos offering different design ideas and options for incorporating outdoor fireplaces for everyday entertaining.
The appeal of outdoor fireplaces comes from the fact that back yard entertaining does not have to stop once the sun sets. These outdoor fixtures are great for providing light and warmth for friends and family as the evening air begins to cool, and are great as outdoor barbeques and pizza ovens.
They can be easily incorporated into landscape design plans around pools and patios. From rustic, natural pieces incorporating faux rocks to sleek, sophisticated fixtures, these outdoor fireplaces can transform any landscape into an entertainer's paradise. With concrete, their color options and design possibilities become limitless.
Building with concrete offers long lasting durability, versatility and requires minimal maintenance. It is the perfect option for withstanding outdoor weather. Outdoor fireplaces can be wood or gas burning. Many of the works in these photos can be replicated and/or tailored to meet the needs of the individual, the home, and space restrictions.
The concrete photo gallery is updated every Friday offering new photos of custom and unique designs and applications. Photos for the photo gallery have been collected from contractors around the country and are for design idea purposes only.
Established in 1999, The Concrete Network's purpose is to educate consumers, builders, and contractors on popular decorative techniques and applications including stamped concrete, stained concrete floors, concrete countertops, polished concrete, and much more. Over 750,000 visitors research The Concrete Network Web site each month.
The site excels at connecting buyers with local contractors in their area through its Find-A-Contractor service. The service provides visitors with a list of decorative concrete contractors throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is fully searchable by 22 types of decorative concrete work and 198 metropolitan areas throughout North America.
News image photo courtesy of Bomanite Corporation. Attached photos courtesy of Advanced Concrete Enhancement and Tom Ralston Concrete.
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Once Again Gamma Imaging Is Chosen to Create Grand Format Vinyl Banners For Chicago's Millennium Park

Chicago-based Gamma Imaging has produced high-resolution vinyl banners for a photographic exhibition at Chicago's internationally celebrated Millennium Park. This is the second time in two years that Gamma Imaging, a specialist in custom banners, has been selected to produce large format graphics for the Park.
(PRWEB) June 28, 2006 -- For the second time in two years, an exhibition at Chicago's award-winning Millennium Park is displaying brilliant banner-sized images created by Chicago-based Gamma Imaging.
The latest exhibition, 'In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World', features 106 4 ft. by 4 ft. large format vinyl banners printed by Gamma Imaging from a photographic collection owned by the Chicago Botanic Garden. The collection includes photo murals by some of the world's best garden photographers, such as Jerry Harpur, Mick Hales, Andrew Lawson and Charles Jencks.
The exhibition runs through September, 2006 at the Park's Boeing Galleries, where it will be viewed by millions of visitors. Since its opening in 2004, Millennium Park has become one the most popular destinations in Chicago, and is recognized around the world as a center for art, music, architecture and landscape design.
The 'Great Gardens of the World' exhibition was staged by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Sponsors include the Boeing Corporation, the LaSalle Bank, and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Gamma Imaging is also a co-sponsor of the exhibition. After being selected through an open bidding process to produce the banners, Doug Goddard, President of Gamma Imaging, decided to support the exhibition by donating a significant portion of Gamma Imaging's work.
Doug Goddard, President of Gamma Imaging, explains, 'Since we're Chicago-based, we wanted to do our part for the Park, too. It's such an asset for the city, we felt it was the least we could do.'
Goddard continues, 'We're very proud of our work for this exhibition. The technical challenge was to create large format banners as stunning as the original photographs, and we're confident we've succeeded. All the feedback has been great.'
Gamma Imaging, a specialist in custom banners, printed the exhibition's vinyl banners, which also incorporate explanatory text, on its Vutek printer using durable 13 oz. white vinyl material. Vutek technology enables Gamma to produce vinyl banners, mesh banners, and cloth banners up to 16 ft. wide in one piece using high-resolution fade- and weather-resistant solvent based UV inks.
When Millennium Park first opened in the summer of 2004, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs also called upon Gamma Imaging to create 167 enlarged images for an exhibition entitled 'Families Around The World', using film shot by French photographer Uwe Ommer. Ommer traveled to over 100 nations on all five continents, taking photos of families and describing their unique customs and lifestyles.
Gamma Imaging utilized a Durst 130 Lambda system to print Ommer's photos on Fuji photo mural paper. The photo murals were then adhered to quarter-inch PVC boards, with an outdoor laminate for permanent weather protection. Gamma's Lambda System uses digital source files to produce unprecedented digital prints directly onto photographic paper or display material. It achieves true continuous-tone photographic quality, razor sharp from corner to corner, without the visual dot patterns seen in non-photographic printing technology.
Vinyl banners and photo murals are only two of Gamma Imaging's many offerings. A world-class provider of graphic services to photographers, graphic artists and agencies since 1962, the company's full range of products and services includes:
* Digital prints of all sizes and formats
* Vinyl banners, fabric banners and mesh banners for outdoor promotions, special events, construction site signage and retail advertising
* Trade show displays, portable display stands and pop-up displays
For more information about Gamma Imaging, visit gammaimaging.com. For more about Millennium Park and 'In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World,' visit millenniumpark.org.
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Industrial evolution

The Industrial Revolution of the 21st century is all about machinery, too, but this time tools are coming out, not going in. Valued as archaeological artifacts of another age, the gritty workings from defunct factories are imaginatively repurposed as furniture in warehouse lofts, downtown apartments, contemporary houses and any other dwelling whose owner seeks the next new trend.
The art lies not merely in rehabbing greasy old things into distinctive sideboards, coffee tables, shelving units, light fixtures and kitchen islands, although a dealer's or decorator's ability to envision a domestic use is key. Homeowners must appreciate the aesthetic of something that never was meant to be artful and also must be willing to violate traditional decorating ideas.Curiously, a semiannual Central Texas antiques fair, acclaimed for its high-quality American furniture and decorative arts, is turning into one of the country's best venues for scoring these more obscure prizes that are already an outright trend on the East and West coasts. Collectively known as Round Top, a fortnight of antiquing centered on the village of the same name, several dealers are building reputations as sources for a style that is more contemporary 'C that is, visionary 'C than what's labeled contemporary in design magazines.
The Round Top Antiques Show (the venerated grande dame) and Marburger Farm (the upstart, but no less admired) include dealers from across the country who see contemporary applications for outmoded industrial machinery and discarded factory fixtures. And a scan of the fair's supporting cast, the hundreds of dealers set up in church halls, tents, pavilions and fields, shows that the trend has not gone unnoticed.
During the past two years, a small group of like-minded dealers has gravitated to Tent E at Marburger Farm. The young (or young-at-heart) sellers come from urban locales like Santa Monica, Calif., Houston and Chicago. They mine not only the Rust Belt, urban areas in the nation's midsection where manufacturing once dominated, but also agrarian regions where outdated machinery can be dissected for its abstract parts.
At last spring's Marburger, for instance, a massive work bench, with a deeply scarred wooden top, industrial casters and multiple drawers, had been scoured and waxed to highlight its imperfections. It was a candidate for a kitchen island, a dining room sideboard or a cocktail bar. A young couple from L.A. considered a wooden dolly with steel tongue and wheels as a cocktail table. Aluminum chicken feeder covers were turned upside down, looking like the underpinnings of a Georgia crinoline, and electrified, with bulbs exposed. The effect was elegantly minimalist, installed singly or in a row.
"I think certain objects have an inherent soulful quality," says Scott Filar of Chicago, whose business is named Mad Parade. "A lot of industrial design was never meant to be seen outside a factory setting. But presented in a modern house or apartment, they exist as sculpture, no matter what their original function was."
Mr. Filar, a dealer and collector, lives his life on the road. He must travel to replenish his merchandise and to reach his customer. "All of this stuff is so off the beaten path. It's lonely when you're out at the end of that creative pier."
That's one reason Marburger's Tent E has grown into a clique of these specialty dealers. They see the world through the same lens. They feed off one another's frenzy for funk, and enthusiastically talk shop between customers.
"We all are drawn to the same things," says Karen Sobotka, a Houston dealer who's a native of New York, "but we have our own way of interpreting them." She likes to have glass cut for factory fittings for use as cocktail, sofa, television and side tables. Pieces that can be converted to chandeliers, with the wiring exposed, are another specialty.
When purchased at established antiques venues like Round Top and Marburger, industrial elements usually have been restored with the same attention as the more typical inventory and already have been converted for domestic use. Time, labor and trendiness dictate the asking price.
Dallas interior designer, landscape architect and antiques dealer Gary Owens has installed such pieces in clients' homes and at his stalls at The Mews, Antique Row and Found. At the Mews, for example, he has combined industrial chic with smart, crisp furnishings to illustrate how even a single element can shake things up.
"Most of my jobs are in Preston Hollow and the Park Cities," he says. "I've combined industrial pieces with midcentury modern and antiques, mixing it up to avoid that stuffy Dallas look."
He puts three-quarter-inch glass tabletops on hospital carts and railyard wagons, strips and polishes steel storage with drawers for dressers and has plexiglass or metal mounts fabricated to showcase objects as objets.
"Repurposing is the purest form of recycling," says D'Ette Cole, an Austin dealer who has set up at a Warrenton site called Clutter for 12 years. A former co-owner of Uncommon Objects, a multi-dealer shop on South Congress famous for its quirkiness, Ms. Cole now operates as Etta Industry. At present, she sells only at the spring and fall shows; an online shopping address is in production.
"Times have gotten so fast-paced, people want to be closer to what is real," and to a culture "that is not such a disposable time," she says. She has scoured defunct farm implement suppliers and salvage yards in West Texas for anything with industrial origins, including farming and ranching. With her experience as a photo stylist and studio artist, she values mundane, utilitarian objects for their weathered colors and intrinsic design.
For instance, sagging bedsprings mounted on the wall reveal an artistic pattern of circles and spirals. Drum-shaped iron machinery parts have been converted to chandeliers; ditto a series of cylindrical steel cages with their original red-orange paint.
Clutter's name notwithstanding, Ms. Cole says her own new personal style is not unlike that of the shoppers drawn to her inventory. "It's sparer, more sophisticated. I want to be a little bit pared down, kind of more purposeful. I'm trying to get closer to the core of what I want my life to be."
At the October show will be her just-purchased trove of French and English finds, including industrial and commercial elements. She plans to construct vignettes combining 18th-century toile and a 10-foot-long table from a San Saba general store with English factory lights, 19th-century advertising signs and enameled Swiss army canteens.
"I think oddly enough it will visually make sense, if only to me," says Ms. Cole. "I'm still doing the industrial salvage thing, just with a multicultural twist."
De-grunged machinery bases combined with table tops of marble, butcher block or weathered, waxed zinc or tin
Light fixtures fashioned from industrial glass shades (like the toffee-brown examples, below, at Mark Dooley's Excess site) or any machinery part that can be suspended
Architectural components of natural stone, cast stone, terra cotta, concrete, tin or wood used as table bases and other furnishings and/or elevated to the status of sculpture
Hand-lettered or figural commercial signs rendered by a schooled artist or unskilled hand as art for big walls
Quilts and other textiles repurposed as graphic art for big walls. The African-American quilt from Missouri (right) hung in David and Kim Leggett's stall at Marburger Farm.
Perplexity value: Most of us are too urban, too young or both to identify industrial artifacts. One-of-a-kind furnishings get extra points for the Whazzat? factor.
For details about the October antiques week in Round Top and related venues, go to www.roundtop.org (Click on "antique show venues" in the drop-down menu) and www.antiqueweekend.com.
Repurposed factory fixtures can pop up anywhere at the Central Texas antiques fair. But specific destinations include the Big Red Barn at Round Top Antiques Fair, Tent E at Marburger Farm, Harmonie Hall in Shelby and Clutter (ettaindustry.com) and Excess (northstarantiques.com) in Warrenton.

From the Stacks: June 30, 2006

Utne receives some 1,200 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, and zines. Add in hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, and it's a flood of media that lines the walls of our library and piles high on our desks. All the ideas, people, and stories inspire lively daily chatter, but they can't all fit into our bimonthly magazine. So we share the gems here in our weekly editions of "From the Stacks." Check in every Friday for the freshest highlights of the independent and alternative media.
The new issue of Topic (#9) focuses interestingly on music and its attractive design compelled me to read it word for word. In its pages I learned about a deaf person's music listening experiences, a "model anthem" combining the world's national anthems into one song, and the troubled life and career of Jimi Hendrix's younger brother Leon. I attempted to match eight pictured teenagers with their favorite song, commiserated with a woman pianist who quit classical music at 18 (after 14 years of playing), and got inside the minds of Wrigley Field organist Gary Pressy, horror film music composer Joseph Loduca, and pop musician Sufjan Stevens. Now in its fifth year of publication, Topic has previously investigated such concepts as prison, food, fads, family, and sin. -- Chris Dodge
A hulking man with a cape and striped knickers graces the cover of the latest issue of the Saskatchewan-based BlackFlash. He's Sweet Daddy Siki, a flamboyant Stampede Wrestler from the 1960s, and he and the likes of the Cuban Assassin and the Dynamite Kid are part of a photographic feature on the world of wrestling. Through the magazine's dedication to presenting "photo-based, electronic, and digital art production with an edge," the issue (#23.3) wanders into other sporting nooks, including an artistic project that sponsored an Irish football team and scrawled ART on players' jerseys, as well as a Winnipeg art film on the demise of the town's heroes: Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets. -- Rachel Anderson
Lois Gibbs helped make the Love Canal, and consequently toxic waste, a household name. Today she sits as executive director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, an organization dedicated to creating safe and healthy communities. The group's quarterly newsletter, Everyone's Backyard people know that the fight for health is still on. The Summer issue celebrates the Environmental Protection Agency notching up its standards for cleaning up dioxin contamination in "Raising the Bar," and Mike Schade explores biobased plastics in "Back to the Future." Perhaps most inspiring is the "Action Line" section, highlighting activist efforts in 20 states and two continents. -- Rachel Anderson
Slither's fearless honesty makes the reader feel as if its creator, Kelly Froh, is an old friend recounting, comic-strip style, her everyday adventures. In the zine's sixth issue we see her through an awkward first date, the discovery made in a deep Wisconsin Hobby Lobby that she does in fact look like her father, and an unfortunate moment when she overhears her parents doing the deed. Another highlight: Froh's depiction of specialty pizzas and the types who order each variety at the joint where she finds her summer job. -- Suzanne Lindgre
Hailing from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, Flux features a quirky and eclectic array of pieces in its Spring issue. The cover story follows one man's efforts to reconnect his Grand Ronde tribe with tradition through the creation of a longhouse. The traditional structures, Sena Christian explains, are "spiritually blessed places where members privately gather to participate in sacred ceremonies, dances, and rites of passage." Not quite a centerfold, but close, is Adrienne van der Valk's feature "Back in Black," which explores the resurfacing of burlesque as a pastime and profession residing in the gray area between art and porn. Also within Flux's pages: students investigate topics from environmentally correct clothing to prison work programs, pit bull disposition makeovers, and the endangered state of honey bees. -- Suzanne Lindgren
If large photos of lush wilderness in nature magazines tend to inspire wanderlust, then the latest issue of Audubon, the magazine of the National Audubon Society, might just put you over the edge. The July/August issue focuses on "Green Travel," chronicling Alex Shoumatoff's ecotour through the Peruvian Amazon. The area's lack of environmental protections threaten the wealth of howler monkeys, macaws, and rare therapeutic flora found in the forest. Unless greater protections are imposed, Shoumatoff says, "[I]f you want to experience the Amazon, you'd better get there fast." -- Bennett Gordon
"Read carefully," was the advice given to me by Utne librarian Chris Dodge when I asked about Chronicles, a magazine published by the Rockford Institute. The latest issue's cover depicts a haloed white knight on a white horse exchanging steely glances with a shadowy dragon. The headline: "30 Years Fighting the Culture War." The "Culture War" topic elicits a fair share of generalizations, among them: Joseph Sobran's "Religion is at the heart of every culture," and Thomas Fleming's "Liberal to the core, we [Americans] lack the most basic survival instincts." But there are a few moments of relative clarity in the July issue, such as James O. Tate's essay lamenting the effect of technology on communication. "Television seems to be an instrument of political obfuscation," Tate writes, "a babysitting pacifier of stay-at-homes." -- Bennett Gordon
The Summer issue of the Center for a New American Dream's quarterly publication, In Balance, boils down the citizen group's principles of social and environmental responsibility into a 15-page newsletter. Although school's out for summer, the issue's cover story, "Helping Kids Breathe Easier," is a call to action for implementing "green cleaners" in buildings where children spend their days. New York already has answered the plea. Beginning in September, a "first-of-its-kind state mandate" will require every public school to use "Green Seal" certified cleaning supplies. And New Jersey isn't far behind. Around 35 Garden State schools have made the shift to toxin-free products in the past two years, and in January, writer Andrew Korfhage reports, it became mandatory to use alternative cleaners in all state offices. --Kristen Mueller
Lilith is "independent, Jewish, and frankly feminist." No, she's not the latest pop culture it-girl. Lilith is a 30-year-old nonprofit magazine. Inside the Summer issue, contemplative essays explore controversial topics (a lesbian couple's modern Orthodox Jewish wedding) alongside the tale of a New Yorker's Lower East Side-search for a new zipper. Lilith isn't without a male voice. Clancy Sigal rounds out the issue with an article titled "A Woman of Uncertain Character, The Amorous and Radical Adventures of My Mother Jennie (Who Always Wanted to Be a Respectable Jewish Mom) By Her Bastard Son." -- Kristen Mueller
The title of Poetry's Humor Issue, Peotry, sets the silly tone for the pages inside. Lewd rhymes, from the romantic to the near pornographic, dominate the July/August issue. Insulting diatribes (like Dean Young's "Sean Penn Anti-Ode") and parodies of classics (like "We Old Dudes" by Joan Murray, patterned on Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool") only dot the landscape. Poetry has published the best poets for nearly a century and received a bequest of more than $100 million in 2002. Its temporary alter ego Peotry lives up to the legacy; quality and integrity persist throughout, and few magazines have so earned the right to play. -- Rachel Jenkins

Prepare for Takeoff: Canada Post Launches New Stamps Honouring the Snowbirds

Canadian military formation aerobatic teams have played a part in Canada's distinguished military aviation history. Since the inception of the "Siskins" in the 1930's there have been many teams, all of whom have exemplified the skill and proficiency common to Canadian Air Force pilots and ground crew. The Golden Hawks and Golden Centennaires are still remembered by many people who enjoyed their exciting aerobatic displays. These teams received worldwide recognition, and their members were proud ambassadors of the men and women of the Canadian military. The Snowbirds, while performing before millions of spectators across North America, carry on the fine traditions established by their forerunners.
When the Saskatchewan government was planning Homecoming 71 - a call for all former Saskatchewaners to visit the province - Premier Ross Thatcher asked the commander of the Golden Centennaires what he might be able to contribute. The colonel suggested an air show... and a Canadian icon was born. A name-the-team competition was held among the base's elementary school children and the winner suggested "Snowbirds" - owing both to the white-painted Tutors and the popularity of Anne Murray's chart-topping song.
During the 1974 season, the colour scheme of the team's planes was changed to red, white and blue. For the first time, team tryouts were open to pilots across Canada and the Snowbirds were cleared to perform a fully aerobatic formation display. In 1977, the Snowbirds became a permanent unit of the Canadian Forces and in 1978, they became the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron.
Designed by Wade Stewart and Tiit Telmet of Telmet Design Associates, Toronto, the first stamp of the pair provides a first-hand view of the Snowbirds in flight from a pilot's perspective. At first glance, the second stamp appears to show only three planes; however, a closer look reveals a number of ghosted planes representing the Snowbirds' nine-plane formation, a hallmark pattern of this world-famous flying team. Multiple layering and other special techniques transform simple photographs into translucent painterly images to create an almost ethereal view of the Snowbirds in flight.
In recognition of this special issue, Canada Post has worked together with the Royal Canadian Mint and the Snowbirds to create a limited edition Canadian Forces Snowbirds Stamp and Coin Set. This distinctive collectible set, which comes in a metallic box in the shape of, and embossed with, the Snowbird's logo, includes a 99.99% pure silver $5.00 double hologram coin, a pair of mint-condition 51 cents stamps, a Souvenir Sheet of the stamps, an information booklet containing stunning photographs and many historical facts about the Snowbirds, and a numbered plaque. Only 25,555 numbered sets have been produced.

Water Features Photo Gallery Offers Great Design Ideas for Landscaping Projects

Faux rocks and artificial boulders made of concrete can transform virtually any landscape into an island paradise. Homeowners, designers and builders can browse through The Concrete Network's online water features photo gallery and find the perfect feature for their landscaping project.
Yucaipa, CA (PRWEB) June 16, 2006 'C- The Concrete Network, the largest and most comprehensive source for concrete information, offers an online concrete water features photo gallery featuring design ideas for creating artificial rocks and boulders from concrete for waterfalls, swimming pools, and other outdoor environments.
Homeowners, landscape and swimming pool designers, and contractors are turning to faux rocks for water feature construction because of their aesthetic appeal and convenient installation process. While landscapes are often easy to alter by adding flowers and trees, today's innovative water features offer homeowners a resort-like setting right at home.
Artificial rocks made of concrete offer a multitude of design possibilities without the hassle of having to transport heavy materials, and can often be created on-site. It is clear to see that virtually any landscape can be created through decorative water features. From waterslides in the forms of rocks to fountains decorating a garden, these features can be designed to enhance any existing landscape.
These features offer long lasting durability, are versatile and require low maintenance, and are the perfect option for withstanding outdoor weather. Many of the works in these photos can be replicated and/or tailored to meet the needs of the individual, the home, and space restrictions.
The concrete photo gallery is updated every Friday offering new photos of custom and unique designs and applications. Photos for the photo gallery have been collected from contractors around the country and are for design idea purposes only.
Established in 1999, The Concrete Network's purpose is to educate consumers, builders, and contractors on popular decorative techniques and applications including stamped concrete, stained concrete floors, concrete countertops, polished concrete, and much more. Over 750,000 visitors research The Concrete Network Web site each month.
The site excels at connecting buyers with local contractors in their area through its Find-A-Contractor service. The service provides visitors with a list of decorative concrete contractors throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is fully searchable by 22 types of decorative concrete work and 198 metropolitan areas throughout North America.
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Seaward project well under way

While much of the focus is on the $4.9 billion Ginn investment on the tip of West End, another multi-million dollar project is well under way just next door.
Seaward Developer Phillip Ward revealed yesterday the 35-acre private upscale residential community is a $50 million investment.
Seaward is located on the south side of the island along the Deadman's Reef community.
Work on the project began in 2003. Not long afterwards, expert engineers and landscape architects were brought in to help with the design.
The Florida investor noted that getting the approval was a timely process but the project has been under development for almost a year.
The private home community includes 21 lots and, according to Ward, there are only about 14 left ' five on the beach and three on the back are already sold.
The beachfront properties are going at $1.5 million with the back properties at $795,000 and the two yacht properties on the channel are priced at $950,000.
The lot owners will be responsible for the construction of their homes.
"I'll probably manage the construction," Ward revealed. "We've talked with some of the local builders and we're certainly going to steer people towards the builders we want to use and, in addition to that, we want to probably oversee the construction so that it's done in a fashion that meets our requirements."
Ward says the lots are about an acre and he expects the owners are going to design a home that fits the lot.
The developer pointed out that Seaward offers the best of all worlds.
"My view would be that you have the opportunity to live a dream. You can live in an island home on Grand Bahama on an acre of land and build what you want," he stated.
His only requirement, however, would be that the home owners do not impact their neighbours by building some big imposing house that looks down on someone else's house.
"As long as they build within the perimeters of their acre lot, which they should be able to do without too much of a problem, then I'm fine with that," he said. "They'll design it and we'll help them get it built."
Ward anticipates the project will draw largely international clients, but he says he is not putting any limitations on who the buyers are.
While he expects Americans wishing to have a second home in Grand Bahama, leave their boat here and fly back and forth will be attracted, he adds there is certainly the possibility that some Europeans as well as the types of buyers already coming in at Old Bahama Bay and the Ginn project would have an interest in the project.
A marketing strategy for the mega investment is set to get underway soon.
The Florida investor explained that the primary aim was to get a lot of the prepwork done first so that prospective buyers would feel comfortable that the project was off the ground and going forward.
"I've contacted some of the local realtors and we'll probably begin doing more of that," Ward said. "Some people locally have talked to their large realty companies up in New York, getting the word out at this point."
The first house to be constructed on the property will be the caretaker's, within the next three to six months.
"Once the caretaker house is in, then we can finish up a lot of the other things and start building some of the other homes," Ward said.
The beachfront property gives homeowners of Seaward everything that they want.
"The best of all worlds is to have your home with your boat either in front or behind you and this beautiful ocean view and this beautiful Bahamas. You know, as they say, it's always better in The Bahamas and I'm a firm believer in that," Ward said.
Initially, Ward bought the land some time ago from the estate of Leslie Laing as a getaway for his wife and children and fixed up the house on the site.
After the children grew older and the family trips grew fewer, he said it took some time to decide what to do with the property.
He was discouraged by his daughter from selling the property and she convinced him to look at an alternative.
That alternative, he said, was to cater to people's love of a boating lifestyle.
In that vein, he says there are several little features that make the project unique ' the minimum width of the marina is 120 feet allowing for just about any size boat to come through and the lots were built up to 11 feet to avoid storm surges
Another attribute is the fact that the marina is excavated to over eight feet at low tide and a boat ramp to allow for the easy maneuvering of small boats and jet skis in and out of the water.
Also a flow channel, a requirement by the BEST Commission, that turns over 90 per cent of the water every 24 hours which mangroves will be planted to accommodate fish.
"A lot of little features that differ from anything else. I think it's a nice lifestyle for people," he said.
The care taker living on site will be watching over the houses and boats.
He pointed out that the Ginn development also compliments the project and will afford the owners a variety of dinning and golfing experiences.
"The whole island has so much more to do than many of the Family. It think it should really compliment Ginn. We're considerably smaller, obviously, but in that sense its a very quiet little community and a short distance away it's a touristy development," said Ward.
SURVEYING THE AREA ' Florida investor Phillip Ward, left, and his associate George Gentile surveyed the work being done on the multi-million dollar project along Deadman's Reef, West End yesterday.(Photo by BRADLEY RUTHERFORD)
AERIAL VIEW ' This aerial shot shows a view of the 35-acre private residential community development under way along Deadman's Reef, West Grand Bahama.