Hello everyone, I have a question about early zoo Rainforest buildings. I know Topeka Zoo is credited with opening the first Rainforest dome in the year 1974, although I'm aware of at least one zoo with a Rainforest building, although not a dome, prior to this date. That zoo is my home zoo of the Capron Park Zoo, which opened its Samuel Stone Tropical Rainforest Building in 1963. What other zoos opened Tropical Rainforest buildings prior to the year 1974?
None to my knowledge but it depends on what precisely you mean by 'rainforest building'. Even as early as in the 19th c some European zoos began to built tropical greenhouses which hold, at least at some point in history, also animals. A good example is Antwerp's 600 m² Winter garden, a tropical green house which opened in 1897. To this day this building functions as a small rainforest, housing insects and butterflies. Very few information & examples are available before world war II. Large glass roof constructions were of course possible (the many botanical gardens are good examples) but for some reason no one built them to house animals. In 1884 the Berlin Zoo opened its third Monkeyhouse, designed as a greenhouse with inside cages; in 1924 it changed in the Affenpalmenhaus. Still no real tropical rainforest, but this building got tropical plants as early as in 1884 (as seen on a picture in the Leipzig Illustrierte Zeitung in 1885 (source: "New Worls, New Animals. From Mengarie to Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century", authors: R.J.Hoage and WIlliam A. Deiss). In 1913 Zoo Berlin opened it's aquarium, a 3 story building with a crocodile hall which is at those days probably the closest example of a tropical rainforest : it has a glass top roof, a lush tropical vegetation and animals. The 1927 Wuppertal aquarium copied this style to house its American alligators. So, in the first half of the 20th c I can't find any real tropical rainforest building. And even in the post war decades these buildings are almost non existing. Why? However, technology is already available as early as the late fifties: in 1960 the Missouri Botanical Garden opens the Climatron Greenhouse, which was the first fully air-conditioned building made of plexiglass. Light materials and climate control systems are essential for large-scale tropical greenhouses. So why are there so few tropical rainforest buildings in zoos. The given examples of the Capron Zoo and Topeka Zoo were unknown to me. Almost none are mentioned in the 'Construction and Design Manual. Zoo Buildings', (author: Natascha Meuser). Maybe there was no interest from the public? The real stuff came in the eighties with Jungleworld (1985) and Burger's Bush (1988). Even today, real rainforests building are rather rare in Europa (Burgers, Chester, Stuttgart, Beauvall, Vincennes and a few more) although many zoos have smaller facilities.
Other than large aquariums, rainforest buildings are the most expensive facilities to operate. Botanical gardens can justify the expense as necessary to expand their collections. But for zoos it is more of a bold statement of "we have arrived!" and they will be paying for that for decades.
Surrey Zoological Gardens opened in 1831 and featured a glass dome of 6000 sq feet. It featured tropical plants and a stream with fish, it also had cages within for birds and carnivores including big cats. The Other London Zoo OR Vesuvius and a parachuting monkey
It is interesting that this was the period when wrought iron technology was making such grand conservatories possible for the first time. The Great Stove at Chatsworth was built soon after and also included free flight birds and rockwork. And at 30,000 sq feet must have been very impressive
Since 'zoo rainforest' is not strictly defined, any zoo can claim its is the first or the best. But I think numerous greenhouses and especially the crocodile hall in Berlin from the 1931 would definitely count as zoo rainforests. There are at least 3 other early examples in Europe: - Free-flight bird hall in Zurich Zoo, the first walk-though exhibit with tropical vegetation and free-roaming birds. - 100m long bird rainforest hall in the former Wassenaar Zoo, - The former Burgers mangrove in Arnhem, replaced by the new one. This one had diverse other animals besides birds. I hope somebody can help me with opening dates of these.
That's really the crux of it. Zoo buildings with plenty of light and loads of live plants date back to the mid-nineteeth century when the technology to create such a space became available. And with that technology (to create structures that admit loads of natural light) came changes in how all public buildings were thought of. But these are no rain forests. If a rain forest building requires free flight birds at the very least and mixed species exhibits. That development came with improvements in technology (insulation and HVAC systems), husbandry and, more importantly, changes in zoo philosophy. Bird curators were largely opposed to free flights and mixing most bird species until well into the1980s. They saw what was being done in Topeka and Minnesota but were not supportive of the approach. They were concerned about breeding rather than exhibition. The early pioneering rain forest buildings represented changes in culture as well as technology.
The first mangrove hall at Burgers Zoo dates from 1980 and was originally meant as a try out for the later built tropical rainforest. The Louisehal at Dierenpark Wassenaar opened in 1953 while the Paradijshal dates from 1961. I have no knowledge of the bird hall in Zurich: where is or was this exhibit?
I wouldn't consider it as a Rainforest, although I suppose one could make the argument it is. I would classify Rainforest buildings as any zoo exhibit with natural light, live rainforest plants, and free ranging animals (usually birds) in a complex, mixed species exhibit.
