COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DECORATION, AND FULL SCOPE OF RE-DESIGN AND FENG SHUI FIRM NOW IN TOWN

Edited by Carly Zander, assoc. news editor

From the Mediterranean, through the Caribbean and the Floridian Atlantic to the South California Pacific, Bringing a Good Mix of Services From Coast to Coast.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - May 7th 2003 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- Ellypses Corporation announces its relocation from Miami, Florida, to the Southern California market, offering a fresh "scenery effect" approach directly to consumers of the thousands of available units in town.

What makes Ellypses unique, is its staff's global background: from eastern to western Architectural and Interior Design influences, based in studies conducted in Venezia (Italy) and Caracas (Venezuela), its Design reflects styles ranging from the Venetian splendor, the Milanese austerity, the Florentine renaissance, the "white" Mediterranean to the colorful Caribbean and the Floridian tropical ambiance.

According to the San Diego housing information, the County requires each year more than 23,000 residential units to fill the needs created by new jobs. For the year of 2003 the average estimated is 27,000. As a result, the building industry supplies a high volume of housing and commercial units, being a big part of the projects located in Downtown San Diego. In fact, the vertical housing boom is evident as the Downtown skyline reveals towers of residential construction climbing upward on every corner, working hard to create the 4,120 living units right now in progress.

In this context, Ellypses services match perfectly: Full Interior Design, from concept, through timing, budgeting and managing process, to realization; Re-Design, which include "staging" homes for the Real Estate industry or just for a fresh new look; "Decorate-it-yourself", guiding the consumer taste to a harmonic result; "Just married" couples move-in services, organizing his and hers into Theirs; Seasonal Décor and Personal Shopper Services.

Ellypses also offers Studio Art Direction Services, Set Design for TV Productions and Photo Shootings. In addition the staff has an extensive Classical/Architectural Feng Shui knowledge that integrates dynamic energies of the inner world and outer environments, specializing in Land Selection and Site Analysis; Layout Concept; Placement of Furniture and Accessories; Plant Selection; Color Scheme and Water Features.

According to the different services and projects offered, professional fees may vary from $50.00 to $200.00 on an hourly basis. Packaged Services also available on specific project designs.

"Our Designers listen, understand and ultimately create places that exceed Clients expectations, transforming ordinary rooms into magical spaces," said Ellypses Corporation President Sara Ranghi.

About ELLYPSES CORPORATION, Inc. - Beyond the staff professionalism and knowledge, Ellypses, a Design and Real Estate Corporation, was created in Florida in 2001, to bring together 30 years of experience in the many different latitudes, from Venezia to Margarita Island and from the Florida Keys to San Diego, always where the sea is; combining minimal urban design with the costumer's personal taste.

BECK OFFICE FURNITURE ACQUIRES TWO COMPANIES IN MARYLAND AS PART OF THEIR NATIONAL ACQUISITION AND EXPANSION PLAN

BECK OFFICE FURNITURE ACQUIRES TWO COMPANIES IN MARYLAND AS PART OF THEIR NATIONAL ACQUISITION AND EXPANSION PLAN
Edited by Christopher Simmons, senior news editor

Founded in Long Island in 1957, Beck Continues to Expand Space Planning Services and Additional Private Label Brand Showrooms through Acquisitions

NEW YORK, NY - Feb. 3, 2003 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- Beck Office Furniture, Inc. (www.beckofficefurniture.com) today announced the acquisition of American Space Planners of Owings Mill, MD, and Advanced Office Furniture, of Laurel, MD. These locations add substantially to Beck's existing large, fully stocked, New York showrooms in Huntington Station, Mineola, Rockville Centre, Ronkonkoma, and Manhattan, NY.

The former owner of American Space Planners, Wendy Lyons will stay on as manager of the renamed Beck American Space Planners. The former owner of Advanced Office furniture will stay on as manager of the renamed Beck Office Furniture of Maryland.

"These acquisitions give us additional facilities in key customer markets," says company President and CEO, Kenneth Beck, "and are the next step in our national showroom expansion. With the challenged economy, we've been able to make several acquisitions over the past six months, first locally in New York, and now in Maryland."

Concludes Beck, "With our e-commerce web site we already service companies around the country. What separates us from the unsuccessful dot-com companies in the furniture industry is our showrooms. The Internet has helped us identify customer markets in which we should have a brick-and-mortar presence, and we are acquiring or opening showrooms in those key markets."

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Beck Office Furniture, Inc. is the oldest and largest commercial office furniture dealer on Long Island, New York. Joe Beck started Joe Beck Desk Co. in a Manhattan warehouse 50 years ago based on the philosophy: "If you give the customer great value and even better service, you'll have a customer for life."

Beck Office Furniture, Inc. offers its clients the professional expert service normally expected and received by Fortune 500 companies, but tailored to smaller businesses.

Beck has an in-house team of office designers, each holding design degrees who provide complete space planning services. Beck carries both brand names, and private label furniture and office systems manufactured by top companies -- at a fraction of the name brand price, but with equal quality.

The company is privately owned. Corporate headquarters are located at 48 Jericho Turnpike, Mineola, NY 11501, USA.

Olympic switch: New York rejects Manhattan

Olympic switch: New York rejects Manhattan
stadium, proposes another in Queens
The highly contentious New York
Sports and Convention Center,
proposed for the Far West Side
neighborhood of Manhattan, was
defeated on June 7 as New York
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and Senate Majority Leader
Joseph L. Bruno refused to approve
the plan. The vote ended New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s multiyear
quest to secure a new stadium,
not only for the New York Jets, but
possibly for the 2012 Olympic
Games. The city’s Olympic bid, however,
was given new hope a few days
later when Bloomberg announced a
new stadium plan in Queens.
The $2.2 billion, 75,000-seat
West Side stadium, which was
being designed for the Jets by New
York–based Kohn Pedersen Fox
(KPF), had recently been replanned
to better fit the scale and character
of the low-rise industrial neighborhood,
including an almost 40 percent
reduction in height, and the addition
of a semitransparent glass facade.
But such efforts came to no avail.
At a press conference on June
7, Silver, who held the deciding vote
on the state’s Public Authorities
Control Board, pointed to several
pressing city issues as reasons for
not supporting the plan. The most
important, perhaps, was his position
that Far West Side development
would have siphoned financial support
from Lower Manhattan, which
is within Silver’s legislative district.
About $1.6 billion of the tab
would have been paid for by the
Jets, including a $250 million payment
to the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
(MTA) for the West Side
railyard site over which
the stadium was to have
been built. The remaining
$600 million would have
been split by the city and
state as a public subsidy.
“Considering the challenges
already facing the
city and the state of New
York, this plan, at best, is
premature,” said Silver.
Predictably, stadium
supporters such as the
Jets, Bloomberg, and
Governor George Pataki
were outraged. The Jets
pinned much of the
blame on the Cablevision
Corporation, which owns
nearby Madison Square
Garden, which would have
competed with the stadium,
and had bid against the
Jets for the MTA property. Bloomberg
also warned that the stadium’s
defeat might not only cost the city
the Olympics, thousands of jobs, and
significant tax revenue, but might discourage
builders from pursuing other
projects in the city. “One of the great
dangers is that developers are going
to get disheartened and say, ‘I can’t
build anything in New York City
because the politics always get in
the way,’ ” he told reporters on
June 8. Bloomberg is not alone in
bemoaning the wariness of the local
government to fund large-scale projects,
although many support its
ability to veto developers’ plans.
The stadium had been one of
the most controversial building projects
in recent city history, as many
felt it would siphon money from
needed projects, ruin the character
and scale of the neighborhood, break
up connections with the Hudson
River, and bring unmanageable traffic
and crowds into the area on game
days. Supporters felt the project
would not only be a boon to sports
fans, but would help catalyze the
Far West Side, or Hudson Yards
District, which is a 40-square-block
area enclosed by 42nd and 30th
Streets and 8th and 11th Avenues in
Manhattan. The area, which has long
lain dormant, was recently rezoned
to allow significant amounts of commercial
and residential development.
For KPF, which would not
comment, the project’s failure
means the loss of several years of
work. Meanwhile, as the Jets decide
whether to pursue the stadium with
private funds (MTA chairman Peter
Kalikow said on June 9 that if the
team remains interested, the
agency would follow through on the
deal), other area developers are
turning their eyes on the railyards
site, and on the rest of the area.
A second chance in Queens
While the city’s chances to lure the
Olympic games looked bleak after
the West Side stadium defeat, they
improved on June 13 as the city and
the New York Mets announced a plan
to build a new stadium for the Mets in
Flushing, Queens, which could be
converted into an Olympic-size arena
should New York win the games.
The stadium, to open in 2009,
would replace Shea Stadium and
hold 45,000 fans for baseball. It
could be converted into an 80,000-
seat stadium for the Olympics after
the 2011 baseball season. “It wasn’t
our first choice, but it’s an awful good
alternative,” the mayor said. “New
Yorkers aren’t quitters. We don’t just
walk away from our future.”
Mets principal owner Fred
Wilpon told mlb.com, the official Web
site of Major League Baseball, that
the Mets’ new stadium would likely
look similar to Ebbets Field, the longtime
home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
A plan for such a stadium, by HOK
Sport+Venue+Event, with a brickand-
limestone facade and exposed
steel girders, was first proposed by
the Mets in 1998. The cost of the
stadium, Wilpon said, would likely be
around $600 million, paid for by the
Mets. Construction will begin next
year, regardless of whether the city
wins its Olympic bid. The city and
state plan to provide $180 million to
upgrade supporting infrastructure,
and about $100 million to make the
stadium Olympic-ready, if necessary.
NYC2012, the committee organized
to bring the Olympics to New York,
will contribute $142 million toward
this cost. The 35,000-seat addition
required for the games would be
removed after their conclusion.
Unlike the Manhattan stadium,
there appears to be little political
opposition to the Queens stadium
plan, which would also include press
and broadcast centers, to be built
near the stadium in Willets Point.
New York is competing with London,
Paris, Madrid, and Moscow for the
2012 games. The host city will be
chosen on July 6 in Singapore. S.L.

World Trade Center cultural building designed to float and disappear

World Trade Center cultural building designed to float and disappear
New York State leaders and the
Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation (LMDC) unveiled a
schematic design for the first of
two cultural buildings at the World
Trade Center site on May 19. The
building, designed by Norwegian
firm Snøhetta, will house New York’s
Drawing Center and a new museum
called the International Freedom
Center. Frank Gehry is designing a
performing arts center that would be
located across the street to the north.
The Snøhetta building, which
will sit on the northeast corner of
the Trade Center Memorial’s plaza,
has been designed to minimize
interference with the memorial. In
contrast to the planned 1,776-foot
Freedom Tower, the cultural center
(whose square footage is not yet
determined) would be a low, horizontal
building, with clear sight lines
from Greenwich Street, to its east,
to the memorial on the west. Its
ethereal surface, whose primary
materials were not disclosed, will be
covered with glass prisms.
Snøhetta principal Kjetil Thorsen
explained the “tabletop design” for
the structure, developed with Buro
Happold engineers’ New York office,
whereby the bulk of the building
would be hung from a supporting
structure at its roof. That structure,
in turn, would be supported at its
corners. A processional ramp would
lead visitors up from ground level to
the exhibition and auditorium spaces
above. Thorsen’s Snøhetta partner,
Craig Dykers, said that the architects
worked with the Freedom Center
and Drawing Center in biweekly
workshops over a 90-day period.
The Drawing Center is the only
nonprofit organization in the country
that focuses on the medium of
drawing. The International Freedom
Center will tell “freedom’s story,”
according to its mission statement,
including “a multimedia collage of
some of freedom’s most inspiring
moments, as well as galleries and
temporary exhibits.”
New York’s Mayor Michael
Bloomberg attempted to preempt
criticism from the families of
September 11 victims by compli-
menting “a design that integrates
the memorial, and is respectful of
the buildings around it.” But some
9/11 family members didn’t accept
such reassurances.
Anthony Gardner, chairman of
the World Trade Center United Family
Group, thinks the Freedom Center’s
program is too close to that of the
memorial’s 9/11 museum, and will
upstage the memorial. “The rhetoric
says that the memorial is the centerpiece,
but the reality is it’s an
afterthought. We’re opposed to any
plans to locate a non-memorialrelated
building within the 4-acre
memorial quadrant.” Gardner feels
that if Snøhetta’s building were a
September 11 museum, “that’s a
different story, but our center is relegated
to being underground. I feel
it’s an attempt to sanitize the site,
to make it more attractive for the
office buildings.”
New York’s Governor George
Pataki, who has been under fire for
delays at the World Trade Center
site, announced a timeline for the
cultural center and for other buildings
at the site. He says that new
plans for the Freedom Tower, which
is being redesigned to address
safety concerns, would be presented
at the end of June. This
summer, construction will begin on
the Santiago Calatrava–designed
PATH terminal. Crews will break
ground to build the memorial plaza
itself in 2006, and the cultural center
will break ground in 2007. No
budget has been announced for the
cultural center. Kevin Lerner

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