Toledo Zoo - Elephant Pool

I'm with you TeamTapir!

The only problem is that section 1.4.2. of the Elephant Management Standards, established by the AZA, states:

"Outdoor yards must have at least 1,800 sq. ft (167.2 sq. m) for a single adult individual and an additional 900 sq. ft (83.6 sq. m) must be added for each additional animal (AZA 1997). If this space is the only location for exercise, then it is recommended that the space per elephant should be even greater."

At Toledo, there was only a tiny outdoor yard. Combine that with section 2.3.1 which says, "Institutions should strive to hold no less than three female elephants wherever possible".

This meant the elephant exhibit had to be A.) renovated asap, B.) ask the AZA for a variance, or C.) moving the elephants to another zoo. With the birth of Louie and the public falling in love with him, moving the Elephant program certainly would not be an option.

Applying for a variance would have been a tough sell to the AZA, as the YMCA was still operating at the time. The city wasn't in the budget mess that it's in now and wouldn't allow the sale of one of its parks.

Thus, hasty plans were made to renovate and expand. Boo.

Toledo should have moved the elephants to the space used to build the African Savannah,which for such a new exhibit is not very good.This would have allowed for more space and a lot more creativity in the design of the exhibit.They then could have converted the old elephant area to house other forest dwellers such as okapi,pygmy hippos or red river hogs.Thus leaving the original look of this area which in our opinion is the best in the zoo.

Team Tapir

Of course you are saying something like "What they should have done is, rather than spend $10million, they should have spent $25million."

I'm not so sure Jon Coe designed this. One of the spin off firms (Portico) from Mr. Coe's original zoo design firm (Jones and Jones) takes credit for this complex. It was built after Coe left Jones and Jones to form his own firm. Regardless of who originally designed it, the renovation plans look terrible. But there is no doubt that the original elephant area was way too small.

Jones and Jones was responsible for the original. I believe Jon was involved (according to his own website) along with others. The Portico Group has done the current renovation.

There is some dispute about that. See page 13 of the attached article from 1987:

http://www.melissafaygreene.com/pdfs/Zoo_design.pdf

Jon lists it as his design...

Species Specific Project Examples

...but reduakari you are correct about the renovation plans looking terrible!

Yeah, actually I did see that.
But Becca and Jon were there together and most likely both were involved.

I suppose we could ask them

I wouldn't judge by the sketchy plans and rendering shown on the zoo's website

I wouldn't judge by the sketchy, hastily designed plans. I'm judging by the progress of the project. Phase 1 is complete. It's a hot mess of steel and cable barriers. I can only imagine how phase 2 turns out. Yippy.