The Downfall of Immersion Part 1 (The case of Woodland Park Zoo)

I think, though, to your original point about the state of landscape immersion exhibits that in truth that was a very brief blip of design genius, rarely repeated to full concept. It never swept zoo design it merely influenced it. It is as alive today as it ever has been in the past 50 years which is to say barely. What we see more often is "immersion lite".
The flavor of the day is "Trails" which can be great for animals and guest but are mostly anti-landscape immersion by their very nature

 

And why is that?

 

Are you familiar with the many "trail" exhibits? They all involve what were once called shifts being brought out into the landscape to allow animals to move beyond their enclosure. Landscape Immersion evaporates as an experience when industrial of themed "trails" appear. Often these Trails exhibits are still landscape themed but that is not at all the same as landscape immersion.
Various elevated trails for primates leading to Kapok Tree - ZooChat
Red Panda 360 Trail (Water is Life) - may 2018 - ZooChat