Well, (chuckling) two things, number one, that huge sand dune, you know, which is like, you know, is really not all sand. It’s on top of, of a, of an egg shape, concrete dome because down below is Kingdom of the Night, and that’s the night sky of the Louisiana… Read More
We had a board president who was an engineer, but as it turns out, we were banging our head against the wall, just struggling. I mean, he was also a donor and we were struggling with him. And finally, you know, Stan Howe, who’s been an architect for years and… Read More
Why don’t, how about us, we come back tomorrow?… Read More
You know, Ed, let’s break off right now. We’ll come back tomorrow. And cause I was waving my and arguing and whatever, and it just, we were getting nowhere. You know, and it was gonna be his money we’re going spend. And, and so I said, you know, we went… Read More
He put little green bushes on. It was the same thing we’d shown him the day before, we came back the next day. And he said, gah, that’s great. That’s what, yeah, that’s, that’s great. Let’s go. (dog barking) So it, you know, it’s, but you have to have the… Read More
You think you can raise the money. Read More
And I said, you know, why not?… Read More
And so, you know, we, we opened, we opened the Lied Jungle in April of 1992, immediately rolled into planning and designing an aquarium. The one good thing about having a long time team and span and all of the architect is that an architect that’s been working with you… Read More
And, you know, when it came time to do the gorilla valley, about 23 years later, that individual came full circle and, and signed on for gorilla valley and then for the orangs and then for the elevator, and then for the second half of our conservation center to the… Read More
Sometimes it takes that kind of long range persistence. Sometimes with, as with say the aquarium, we were finishing up the, you know, we were finishing up the Lied Jungle and, you know, my board chairman said, well, we’d, we had built a small aquarium and he had helped with… Read More
And he said, well, you know, what would you, what do you think you’d like to do next?… Read More
And I said, well, I’d like to build a real honest to goodness aquarium now that we’ve done this, and we’ve got experience, and we’ve got a good aquarium staff, and I’d like to build a really honest to good, you know, honest, honest aquarium. (chuckling) And you know, that… Read More
Why don’t we do that?… Read More
Well, the idea, the idea has to come first. The vision has to come first. On the Lied Jungle, for instance, that that project got hatched. One of the things that you have to have is a long view, and you have to have a lot of persistence, a lot… Read More
And over dinner, and a couple of three bottles of wine. As it turns out, Ernie Lied had passed away. There was no money in that foundation, but there was going to be substantial money in that foundation. And Ernie’s, long-time lawyer said, you know, there is a single individual… Read More
We went down and saw, and look, went through Disney’s botanical operation in Orlando. And Terry took us around and very quietly behind the scene said, okay, now we don’t know, Disney does not know anything about Legionnaires’ disease, but if I were you and I were going to do… Read More
And so having somebody that will, you know, over a drink someplace say, you know, we don’t officially know anything about this, but is huge. Now, let me, we’re going to talk about some specific exhibits that you’ve done in Omaha. Read More
But as you’re having this vision, how are you starting to think about the fundraising?… Read More
What comes first?… Read More
And you know, the idea is that by the time they come through, they’ve got a different attitude on conservation and preserving the natural world and all of that, or they’ve just had a good time. And one of the things that we’ve always tried to do is to make… Read More