Now that Brookfield has confirmed the outdoor Tropic World Expansion, I thought it would be fun to create some mock designs before they finish their official designs in the spring. Here's a first draft of what I put together for the space. The outdoor exhibit is designed to complement the immersive design of the indoor exhibit. While the resident primates are from different habitats, dense plantings will immerse guests in the primates' forest homes and reinforce the conservation education message that the health of primate species and forests are linked. All four habitats are netted, as Brookfield has said they will do. Gorilla habitat 1 is 12,500 sq ft. There is a large indoor viewing area (that also has viewing into the new Gorilla dayroom), tunnel viewing that transects the habitat (a la Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx), and a large fallen tree that extends out over the guest area to create overhead viewing. Gorilla habitat 2 is 13,000 sq ft. In addition to multiple viewing areas, there is a lot of topographic variation in the habitat, allowing the gorillas to seek different vantage points as they survey the habitat. Both habitats are connected to the gorilla bedrooms and the other habitat to create maximum flexibility. The Orangutan habitat is 6,800 sq ft. A plethora of climbing opportunities allows the expression of the orangutan's arboreal nature. The guest path crosses underneath one section of the habitat (a la Los Angeles Zoo). The last habitat is the South American Monkey habitat (7,000 sq ft). This habitat is outfitted to support the diverse South American species that call Tropic World home. This was just a first stab at the project. I'd love to get feedback and try out some different ideas for the space. I'm also curious to hear what you'd do if you were designing the space! Maybe I'll make some renderings of the best ideas.
I just want to say I love the image you mocked up for your concept! I am a very visual thinker, and I really appreciate it when users go the extra mile to create nice digital drawings of their speculative projects to convey their ideas. The colors you chose to use are also very nice.
First of all, that is a phenomenal looking mock-up! I remember your hypothetical Pittsburgh Zoo master plan and you have some serious talent with this stuff. I've actually seen the tentative design the zoo is likely going with and parts of your plan are very similar to what's actually being done. Even the sizes of your hypothetical enclosures are almost identical to the planned ones. The one major difference between your speculative plan and the zoos actual plan is that the exhibits are being designed in a way so that you're never actually facing the building. The gorillas and South American monkeys will have overhead tunnels above the pathway that lead to their exhibits and the orangutan exhibit will be viewed from the side as opposed to directly facing Tropic World. The section you have labeled "indoor exhibit and education" is where the new gorilla house is going be. The only major issue with your ideas is that this would block the emergency exhibits in the building. That's accounted for in the real site plan as the visitor path remains relatively close to the building itself at many points, only curving around the orangutans. As for something I'm hoping to see included, I think it would great if the African monkeys could be mixed with the bachelor gorillas in one of the outdoor habitats. This is done in several European collections, but almost none in the US. This was actually mentioned in the article that officially revealed all of the recent information on this project, although I feel this may have been a miscommunication on the articles part. Again, great work. I would be extremely excited if this were the real plan for the exhibit and in some ways I actually like it better (especially the gorilla tunnel).
