What are some of the coolest zoo exhibit plans/master plans that never got built?

Milwaukee County Zoo had a plan to build a food court with a glass floor on top of a coral reef tank. I would have liked to eat there.

 

Back in the late 1980s, the New York Zoological Society, now the Wildlife Conservation Society, agreed to take over three of NYC's small zoos, the Central Park, Prospect Park and Queens Zoos. They developed a master plan covering all three zoos, involving almost total demolition of them, which was indeed completed by the early 1990s, converting the Central Park Zoo into a small, in-city jewel with a variety of climate oriented exhibits plus sea lions, the Queens Zoo into a zoo specializing in American species, and the Prospect Park Zoo into a zoo oriented mostly for children and teaching.

Also, way back in the 1970s, there was a master plan for the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY, based to a significant extent on the Milwaukee County Zoo, at the time probably the most modern zoo in a similar climate. None of it was ever built but, if it had been, Rochester would have had about the best zoo for the size of the city in the U.S.A.

 

What would the polar exhibit have involved?

 

I assume polar bears.

 

Well I assume so too, but I asked gentlelemur because they presumably actually know.

 

I have had to do a bit of treasure hunting before answering this question. I found a map of Whipsnade on which the 'Site for Polar Exhibit' is marked next to the Penguin Pool at the top Bison Hill, near the point where the Escarpment Avenue meets Lady Yule's Walk and Ouseley Way (that path is now closed to the public, but it went beside the brown bears and past the small cat cages - the cages were small, but the cats included leopards and jaguars). I vaguely remember a notice board saying the same thing, perhaps it was marked on a map of the zoo near the penguins.
I think that map da. I tes from my first visit to Whipsnade in June 1972 (which was a day out in the fresh air a couple of weeks before my finals). I would have bought a guide book if I could, but I had to make do with a Special Issue of the 'Zoo Magazine' (describing some famous animals from both Regent's Park and Whipsnade) plus an 8 inch square sheet with this map. I labelled it with the names of each species in the different paddocks.
I assume that the exhibit would have been mainly for polar bears, which had a horrible cage further along the escarpment, near the white lion's tail* at that time, but I have never seen any plans so I don't know if the penguin pool was involved in any way or if other species might have been included. I wonder if any plans still exist in the ZSL library or elsewhere. I should add that my map also shows the 'Site for Dolphin exhibit', which was built, but now houses sea lions.
* ZooChatters who have never visited Whipsnade may not know that the ZSL's symbol of a white lion was cut in the chalk of the Downs below the escarpment at Whipsnade before the estate was opened as a zoo in the 1930s: like a modern version of the Cerne Abbas giant or the Uffington white horse.

 

Back in the 40s milwaukee zoo almost got pandas but due to the war they never did.

 

If only...

 

At least you were partly wrong! Wild Place opened and is growing, slowly!

 

There was a Detroit Zoo master plan in 1967 that among other things showed a number of buildings at the east end that were never built. There also appears to be small pond near the Tiger exhibit in an area that has never been developed.

Unfortunately, the only place I've seen it was in The First Fifty Years, a history of the zoo that covered, well, it's first fifty years. It's a half page photo and not sharply reproduced so I can't even see what the proposed exhibits would have been.

I asked about it a few years ago at the society's annual meeting and no one had ever heard of it.

 

My girlfriend gave me a London Zoo guidebook from 1983 yesterday, which outlines plans to turn the Mappin Terraces into an Arctic Wilderness themed enclosure holding primarily Polar Bears, but also Arctic Fox, otters, waterfowl and birds of prey. The sketch in the book shows a pine forest planted on the slopes, an underwater viewing area and a pier extending over the pool.

 

Not to bring this up after such a long time, but do you by any chance have a copy of this plan at hand?

 

This. Everything here has so much potential working out if it weren’t for the lack of funding for a while.

If one of these need to happen first, it’s the elephant yards. Here’s to hoping the recent fundraiser was a success and actually contribute to new exhibits.

 

I wish...

 

The Blue World project
BREAKING: SeaWorld Announces Blue World Project
I don’t need to explain why this should have happened. It was shut down by the California Coastal Comission

 

The North Carolina Zoo's original 1974 master plan, displaying the zoo's ambitious plan that included exhibits from every continent, a massive aviary, an aquarium titled "World of Seas", multiple amphitheaters, and a cultural center.

Link to page because images aren't working for me.
North Carolina Zoo 1974 Master Development Plan - ZooChat

 

- Franklin Park Zoo masterplan for four African domes featuring different biomes- only the Tropical Forest (the smallest one) was built.
- Roger Williams Park Zoo polar bear habitat and New England Wildlife habitats in Children's Zoo.
- Capron Park Zoo $15 million expansion in 2011, no plan ever released, was abandoned relatively early in the planning process as the zoo couldn't get enough funding for it. The only project from the plan ever completed was the two Lemur islands.

 

A house showing elephants and elephant seals was planned by Warsaw Zoo, Poland during the 1970s. It was a hexagonal building with 4 elephant stalls and an elephant seal pool in each 'slice of the cake'.

The current elephant house was built in the 2000s using this plan, they only replaced the indoor layout with off-show elephant stalls and a common elephant area facing a visitor space.