Reef to mimic the `lost city'

_________________________________________________________________

The Miami Herald
By Susan Cocking
January 29, 2006



COURTESY OF ATLANTISREEFPROJECT.COM
IN THE WORKS: Construction of an artificial reef off
Key Biscayne is scheduled to begin in March. Final
approval for the project came earlier this month.

An artificial reef being planned off Key Biscayne would offer an entertaining re-creation of the lost city of Atlantis.
Miami-Dade County may get its most unusual artificial reef ever with the re-creation of the lost city of Atlantis in the ocean 3 ¼ miles off Key Biscayne this spring.

Gary Levine's Atlantis Reef Project received final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Miami-Dade's Department of Environmental Resources Management earlier this month to construct the sprawling network of cement and bronze statues in 50 feet of water. Levine says construction should begin in March, with the first phase ready to receive divers at the end of April. Levine said the reef will take three to five years to complete at a cost of between $3 million and $5 million.

''It will be five concentric circles, 900 feet in diameter, as big as three football fields,'' Levine said. ``You can see it from the air as a compass pointing due north. There will be 40 specific themed sculptures incorporating the elements you'd have in any city -- arts, government, the military, theater.''

While most of the structures will be made of concrete, utilizing up to 10,000 cubic yards of material, there will also be some bronze statues sculpted by Kim Brandell, who is famous for the stainless steel globe at Donald Trump's headquarters in New York.

Graphic illustrations are done by Joey Burns, who designed the interior of the Sultan of Brunei's private jet, Levine said.

Levine envisions Atlantis Reef as an attraction for divers; haven for fish, lobster and other marine creatures; coral nursery; underwater laboratory -- and memorial reef.

Since Miami-Dade County is not financing the project, Levine proposes to raise money through donors who pay to have their cremated remains incorporated into Atlantis' columns and balustrades.

''Instead of getting sprinkled in the ocean, you're inside a three-foot column,'' Levine said. ``You can be memorialized in this underwater city.''
At this point, he said, there are about a dozen people who have signed up for the underwater memorials.