Great Bear Wilderness - Second Polar Bear Exhibit

This new North American themed exhibit complex includes a large American bison exhibit, a bald eagle aviary, a grizzly bear exhibit with underwater viewing, a polar bear exhibit with underwater viewing, another polar bear exhibit with den viewing, a shop called Bear Crossings, a counter service restaurant called Bison Prairie Grill, and an indoor classroom with views into the bison and second polar bear exhibits. It also incorporates the existing Wolf Woods exhibit for Mexican Gray Wolf, and acts as the entrance to the existing Salt Creek Wilderness nature trail loop.

Looks like a good polar bear exhibit and a good overall complex.

Hmmm--I respect the opinions of you and geomorph, but what I see here is a lot of standard ("geologically illogical") zoo rockwork, poorly designed 'hidden" access doors, "muraled" buildings, obvious keeper stairs, square glass openings in "rocks," fences next to rip-rap slopes, etc. etc.

Overall--not bad, but really lacking in quality of detailing and attention to sightlines. Nice grassy spaces for bears, unique viewing perspective of bisons. But not world class.

Well I didn't say it looks excellent.

I also don't get as worked up over some of the things you do.

No argument there. But for $27 million--and an alleged "leadership" position among American zoos--they should have done better. Back in the 1940s the pile of concrete "rocks" Brookfield built for bears was "state-of-the-art"; this is not. The 7-year old Wolf Woods now integrated into this project is much more thoughtfully and tastefully designed.

I agree that Wolf Woods looks better from what I can tell.

But like with EO, I'd advise to not get to worked up over the cost since I assume it costs more for construction in Chicago than it does in many areas of the country. Plus, they didn't have a blank slate to work with, which may have added to the cost and/or made it more difficult to make a tremendous exhibit.

@mweb08: When did reduakari ever get "worked up"? All he did was to state and explain his opinion in a most calm & rational way-an opinion I entirely agree with, btw.

There are many ways to evaluate an exhibit.
Among them is this one: Is it beautiful?


And thanks geomorph for all those pictures! They give a thorough representation of the site. Much appreciated

All I'm saying is he makes an bigger issue over some things than I do. Not sure why that leads to this.

@mweb08: He doesn't make "a bigger issue"; he just analyses the shortcomings of this particular exhibit and points them out to you. No more, no less.