New Construction Signs

October 13th, 2012.

These photos make the new Asian Rainforest exhibit plans look excellent, and hopefully after this, they'll renovate the elephant enclosure to make pretty much all of the zoo top-class.

I do wonder if they have a contingency plan as their once state-of-the-art elephant exhibit is now considerably smaller and more outdated than modern ele exhibits.

I have a hard time imagining how they would significantly increase the size of the elephant exhibit. There is some interpretive area around it and a Malayan tapir exhibit that maybe could be taken up; that end of the zoo is otherwise really built up.

Hopefully they can find a way to maintain their elephant exhibit. Otherwise there will be no elephants in that part of the world once Point Defiance Zoo shuts down their elephant exhibit.

I don't recall the way the zoo is planned out, but CLR Design in philly who i believe is the creators of this project and have worked a lot with this zoo in the past are a big fan of mixed exhibits, even with elephants. Toyota elephant passage over at dever zoo houses tapirs elephants and rhinos in the same habitat. Even for giants of the savanna at dallas, they call it a flex/multi-speices habitat with elephants. flex habitats is rotational. The African elephants in dallas share their enclosure with many species. This may solve some of the space issue if they take other exhibits near by to form one large enclosure. I have not been to woodland park and do not know what is around, but this may be a route they will probably take especially if they work with CLR Design again.

Denver does not keep elephants, rhinos, and tapirs all in the same enclosure. They rotate them throughout different enclosures.

I am just saying it happens and it could be an option, even an older project in tampa's lowry park they keep some antelope or gazelle in with their African elephants.

The last time Woodland Park worked with CLR on an exhibit was in the early-90s--resulting in the excellent Northern Trail complex.

The existing Asian elephant exhibit is actually fairly big, but the limitations are really more in the holding building, which was not designed to house bulls. As noted, there is no real opportunity to expand or connect to other exhibits, given the location and types of animals housed nearby.

Interestingly, the site now occupied by the elephants was--in the Zoo's visionary 1976 master plan--slated to be a mixed exhibit for sloth bears and axis deer! Now THAT would be innovative!

CLR also had a hand in the development guide for woodland, but the time frame for that I think spans several authors and a info from variety of years. But the copy right that I have is from 2004.

This is not a CLR project. It is Studio Hanson-Roberts, the same firm that did the zoo's penguin project

Like I said I wasn't 100% sure. I have a lot of sketch work form different projects and many of them are missing the firm designated and some are collaborated. Lots of sketches form a variety of firms have the same feel to them. The new habitat for sloth bears, tigers, and otters seemed pretty nice from other drawings. These rendering flush out the atmosphere of the project, but seldom do I think projects capture that feel without a lot of time for vegetation to grow in, but maybe one day.