New York's Jumeirah Essex House and CentralPark.com Announce Winner of the Site's Photo Contest

Sept. 30, 2008 - PRLog -- NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Jumeirah Essex House, one of the top luxury hotels in Manhattan, and Central Park.com recently revealed Joe Josephs, a New York City resident, as the winner of the Spring 2008 photo contest. The photograph, fittingly named Bent Tree Reflection, beautifully captures the near perfect symmetry of the old tree mirrored in Central Park’s “Pool,” located near West 102nd Street and Central Park West.
 
Mr. Josephs was introduced to photography in the 1950s, and specializes in depicting reflections.  Motivated by Central Park to creatively document its limitless photographic possibilities, Mr. Josephs is currently recording the metamorphosis of a single Central Park locale in a 12-month image cycle.
 
The second prize winner of this seasonal contest is Kevin McCullough, who resides in New York’s West Side.  His photograph, Central Park Path, was shot on a cloudy day at Cherry Hill and captures the steps leading to the gazebo at the southern tip of the lake.  Both winning photos were selected and based on their originality, creativity and subject matter. As first-place winner of the photo contest, Mr. Josephs will be the recipient of several prizes, including his photo being prominently featured in the Central Park hotel's lobby for a three-month period for all guests and visitors to enjoy. He will also be honored at the awards ceremony to be held next spring at the Jumeirah Essex House.
 
To view the other contest winners and their photos please visit the CentralPark.com site at http://www.centralpark.com/pages/photo-contest/spring-con....

About CentralPark.com

CentralPark.com is the complete guide to New York's Central Park featuring event listings, photos, history, attractions, activities and much more.  Based in New York City, CentralPark.com's interactive features and tools allow hundreds of thousands of site visitors to take a virtual tour through the Park every month. CentralPark.com also offers free audio walking tours, interactive maps, events calendars, seasonal photo contests, and much more. CentralPark.com was named as one of Time Magazine's Top 50 Coolest Websites and highlighted by Yahoo! for its Publisher Spotlight, among numerous other accolades.

About Jumeirah Essex House

The 509-room Jumeirah Essex House celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2007 and recently completed a major $90 million soft goods refurbishment project which includes South Gate, a spectacular new Tony Chi-designed restaurant, featuring renowned Executive Chef Kerry Heffernan. An historic choice in midtown Manhattan hotels, the Essex House provides a coveted Central Park South address.  Jumeirah Essex House is part of the Dubai-based luxury international hospitality group Jumeirah and sister to the world’s most luxurious hotel, Burj Al Arab.  Features of the hotel include breathtaking views and unrivalled conference and banqueting facilities.
 
The Jumeirah Essex House is among the most celebrated luxury hotels in New York, a recipient of both the Michelin Guide’s 2008 “Five Pavilions Award,” and the 2008 AAA Four-Diamond Award.  The hotel garnered three awards at the 2007 Annual World Travel Awards in New York including “North America’s Leading Hotel,” “North America’s Leading Business Hotel” and “New York’s Leading Business Hotel” voted by travel agents worldwide and was ranked second in the “Best Hotel in the U.S.” category in Global Traveler Magazine’s 2006 GT Tested Awards.
 
Other hotels in the Group’s portfolio include Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in London, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Jumeirah Beach Club Resort and Spa, Madinat Jumeirah and Jumeirah Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai.  For reservations, please call Jumeirah Essex House toll free at 1-888-645-5697 or visit http://www.jumeirahessexhouse.com/

About Jumeirah Group:

Jumeirah properties are regarded as among the most luxurious and innovative in the world and have won numerous international travel and tourism awards. The fast growing Dubai based luxury international hospitality management group encompasses the world renowned Burj Al Arab, the world’s most luxurious hotel, the multi-award winning Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Madinat Jumeirah and Jumeirah Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai, the Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in London and the Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South in New York.

The group’s activities are however, not restricted to hotel and resort management. The Jumeirah Group portfolio also includes Wild Wadi, regarded as one of the premier water parks outside of North America and The Emirates Academy, the region’s only third level academic institution specializing in the hospitality and tourism sectors, Jumeirah Branded Restaurants, the company’s dedicated restaurant division, global spa brand Talise, Jumeirah Living, the Group’s luxury brand of serviced residences offering effortless living in luxurious surroundings and Jumeirah Retail, Jumeirah Group’s retail division with a portfolio of 14 retail stores and dedicated luxury retail website www.jumeirahcollection.com.

Building on this success, Jumeirah Group became a member of Dubai Holding in 2004, a collection of leading Dubai based businesses and projects, in a step that aims to initiate a new phase of growth and development for the group.

Jumeirah’s ambitious expansion plans to grow its portfolio of luxury hotels and resorts worldwide to 57 by 2011 are well underway with projects currently under development in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Aqaba, Doha, Phuket, Shanghai, Bermuda, Mallorca and London.

For further information, visit the website at www.jumeirah.com.