SHENFU NEW TOWN, China, Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- It towers 515 feet, spans a 1,617-foot circumference, weighs about 3,000 tons, contains 16,000 LED lights, and is attracting worldwide attention as the spectacular beacon of a new master-planned city in northeast China.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121219/NY32064)

Recently completed and set for an official dedication this spring, The Ring of Life at Shenfu New Town, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, is the latest master showpiece of acclaimed designer Gary Goddard, who for three decades has been the creative force behind many of the world's most innovative and successful theme parks, entertainment complexes, mega-resorts and casinos.

Mr. Goddard, president of Hollywood-based Goddard Group, also was given the task of master-planning the two-square-kilometer urban core of Shenfu, a city named for its location between Shenyang and Fushun, about 450 miles northeast of China's capital city, Beijing. The Ring of Life commands two man-made lakes around which Shenfu's central district is designed.

"The Ring of Life rises as a unique emblem of the goals and aspirations of this new city's founders," Mr. Goddard says.  "The Ring is a metaphor for the balance in all things, and despite the classic simplicity of a perfect circle, none of the world's iconic structures and monuments had embodied it until now. I felt this classic symbol, set at the edge of the lake and the urban street, best represented the spirit of Shenfu New City."

Mr. Goddard notes that local planners asked the Goddard Group to create a "heart" for the center of the new city, "a place of contemplation that residents and visitors could enjoy and where they could take time to reflect on the role of balance in their lives. The Ring of Life, situated at the convergence of a river, the lakes, and the city center, is a monument to the merging of nature and urban design and a symbol of life in a state of balance."

Goddard Group was retained by the Fushun Economic Development Area Administration Committee in 2009 to master plan many of the commercial, entertainment and recreational features of the new city. Erecting a structure intended to be iconic was Mr. Goddard's idea, serving as a means of helping Shenfu attain distinction from other new urban complexes under development in China. During the final engineering stage, Goddard Group worked closely with ECADI Architects and Engineers, famous for the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

The prior achievements of Mr. Goddard and his design team are on display all over the world – from Times Square to Macau to Hollywood, Las Vegas, East and Southeast Asia, Jakarta and beyond. His creations include the seminal Forum Shops at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas strip, which established the concept of simulating an outdoor environment within an enclosed mall; the long-term master plan for the still-growing Caesars Palace resort; the recently completed Galaxy Casino and Mega-Resort in Macau; Hershey's Chocolate World in Manhattan's Times Square; the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta; Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo; and the forthcoming Magic World Russia in Moscow, among many others.

SOURCE Goddard Group