Brookfield zoo does have a nice Australia house which is almost exactly like what EM mentions. I really like Brookfield zoo, but i can understand the frustration at what was spent on this exhibit for budgies. In contrast, the renovations for the children´s zoo at the Bronx zoo have been much better accepted.
It is more appropriate, if space and budget are the issues, to see it as a facility built for children rather than as an animal exhibit. It isn't, as TropicWorld54 wrote, a facility to increase the zoo's animal collection or even to educate visitors about parakeets. It is Brookfield's latest effort to get children excited about nature.
Nevertheless, more parrot species, such as cockatiel and rosella, and some terrestrial critters (even rabbits!) are needed here. More animals = more interesting for kids, isn't it? If the exhibit's main purpose is interaction with birds, why hadn't it been made as an usual walk-through with the same 'cool' swiveling path in middle? Moreover, the danger of leveled floor is underestimated. Small kids can climb that 50 cm-high fence in seconds and have a nasty 1-meter fall at the other side. And an adult can fall too - when trying to stretch the hand with camera (or cellphone) closer to birds that are at distance.
Perhaps, but the wall does give the birds an area protected from the attacks of children and most likely enough birds will be crowding around visitors with seed sticks that there will be little need to cross barriers. Also, these exhibits are invariably staffed to reduce bad behavior. Children on the wall are probably told to get down. If it were a more typical mixed species walk-through it would be a different experience and children would have to be more restrained and stay on a specific path. I don't know if this is great for what it was intended to be or not, but I can see some obvious reasons why this approach was chosen. As all may imagine, I much prefer naturalistic planted exhibits but I can appreciate other design approaches. Today many zoos have made a priority of including public gathering spaces in new construction. Perhaps this room is also rented out for special events? We don't know the plan, and yet we freely critique an exhibit based on one still photo. We are as Gods on the Internet.
These videos show how the exhibit is managed. Note all the staff: https://youtu.be/FKrc3C9nBm4 https://youtu.be/N3NxBc1-qOo
In a walk-through, a simple wooden or bamboo fence would be enough to stop kids from leaving the path. This wide concrete fence with lowered floor leaves the impression of an unfinished indoor exhibit for tapir or pygmy hippo.
I'm tired of the people saying that this exhibit is ugly. It looks beautiful, and it looks like a modern-art installment, too. Whats ugly is that Fishing Cat exhibit at the Topeka Zoo.
That fishing cat exhibit is a classic cage, cheap to build and easy to demolish. Parakeet house is less ugly & very expensive
It could benefit from more perches and some substrate along the edges, but this is quite a decent, art deco-inspired aviary.
