Beech Creek Preserve
Builder
of the year John Willis Homes is pleased to announce Beech Creek
Preserve located in Athens Georgia in Five Points. Nestled along
the Oconee River, Beech Creek Preserve offers 16 custom homesites
ranging in size form ½ acres to 2½ acres with over
15 acres of green space. Residents will enjoy the riverfront walking
trails that gracefully wind along the banks of the Oconee River
and the convenience of Five Points’ upscale dining, quaint
shops, and spa, athletic, and medical services. Beech Creek Preserve
is moments away from the University of Georgia and downtown Athens
and truly offers the homeowner the opportunity to live in the heart
of a thriving urban environment while enjoying the peace and tranquility
of living on a protected preserve.
John Willis
Homes brings to this project a unique perspective gained from years
of experience creating award-winning communities in Atlanta, Georgia,
and more recently in Watercolor, Florida. The homes in Beech Creek
Preserve will offer homeowners the finest in both interior and exterior
finishes, unique floorplans, and an unparalleled balance between
urbanism and serenity. It is the goal of John Willis Homes to create
16 distinctive homes that encapsulate the magnificent riverfront
setting and provide an environment both within and outside the home
where the homeowner truly feels as though they are living in an
oasis.
History
Beloved University of Georgia
professor and renowned “father of modern ecology,” Dr.
Eugene Odum passed away in 2002 and ended a career at the University
of Georgia that began in 1940. Dr. Odum founded the University's
Institute of Ecology in 1961.
Raised in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina surrounded by lush forests and nature, Dr. Odum developed
an interest which led to a passion for today’s modern ecology.
His textbook, Fundamentals of Ecology, published in 1953, was the
catalyst that introduced and promoted the study of ecology around
the world. For ten years Fundamentals of Ecology was the only textbook
in the field of ecology. It was translated into many languages and
was crucial in the training of an entire generation of ecologists.
Former President Jimmy Carter said, “The work of Dr. Odum
changed the way we look at the natural world and our place in it.”
Odum's influence went far beyond the world of academe. He gave a
scientific underpinning to the environmental movement that emerged
in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Odum was also responsible
for the establishment in 1954 of the University of Georgia’s
Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia in 1954.
With a vested interest in the
success of ecological programs at the University of Georgia and
the Classic City, he left Athens, Georgia with more than just a
legacy of holistic ecology. Dr. Odum endearingly bequeathed over
25 acres of private property adjacent to the Middle Oconee River
– the sale ultimately benefiting the ecology department. His
will stipulated that profits from the sale of the land would go
to the Eugene and William Odum Ecology Fund, after $1 million was
set aside for a professorial chair at UGA in Dr. Odum’s name.
With Dr. Odum’s stipulations of strict developmental guidelines
at the forefront of the development process, The University of Georgia
Foundation worked diligently in tandem with the Oconee River Land
Trust to honor Dr. Odum’s wish for an environmentally friendly
development and agreed to a perpetual conservation easement for
the land in late 2004.
Assuring that 57% of the
parcel would remain protected greenspace, the property was sold
to Atlanta-based John Willis Homes, a development company with a
strong history of ecological stewardship and a desire to preserve
what Dr. Odum worked so hard to protect. The Dr. Odum property is
today home to Beech Creek Preserve, a conservation neighborhood
offering 16 exclusive custom homesites
among 15-acres of riverfront greenspace
and walking trails along the meanderings of Middle Oconee River.
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