Birds weren’t hard to get at that time, they’ve become more difficult. Some of these were captive raised. Some of them were imported from dealers under special permits. I think it’s harder to do things today than it certainly was then. You’ve got the quarantine issues that are more stringent. Read More
Were these animals, were these birds difficult to acquire for the exhibit or how did you acquire them?… Read More
How are we going to put trees and all of the artifacts in there that we need to have to tell the story and then we wanna make sure that we have this proper specimens to what we’re trying to do. It was interesting that when you came into the… Read More
But in the mixed aviary exhibits, we tried to tell a story ’cause it was more of an educational benefit than trying to identify every little bird in the exhibit. And you couldn’t keep up with it. You mentioned some unusual birds. Read More
So, a lot of thought had to go toward what’s this space really gonna be best for?… Read More
How are we going to design it?… Read More
If we were having a cock-of-the-rock exhibit, it’s gonna look like a tropical exhibit with a cocks-of-the-rock in it, we had to make sure that we were gonna have cocks-of-the-rocks. If we were going to have a small exhibit that is going to tell the story of toucans or something… Read More
And with this new exhibit, you had to bring in new birds, new specimens for this?… Read More
We had a game plan of what we wanted to show. Now, I’m pretty much of a supporter of ecological type of exhibits. In other words, this is a shorebird exhibit. And so, we’re gonna design the exhibit to look like a shore with the way the pools are and… Read More
Were you involved in any type of fundraising?… Read More
I was not involved in any type of fundraising, that was done by others. Read More
The St. Louis Zoo is funded by a zoo-museum tax district. And it’s a tax on real and personal property for people who live in the city, as well as St. Louis County. And that money is taken and given to some institutions and the zoo receives the largest portion… Read More
It was indeed the first major design I was ever involved in. Read More
How did it get funded?… Read More
Was your first major design that you were involved in?… Read More
This renovation fell in line with some other renovations. A new cat exhibit had been completed. The primate house had been completed, been renovated. The herpatarium had been, I think it had been renovated, that I think the birdhouse was the last. Obviously had the opportunity to work with these… Read More
So, all this had to be taken into account. So, we designed all of this and it was done as a team effort. We had design teams. And so, I would work with the architects and the engineers. Read More
And it really turned out to be a very, very spectacular product when it was finished. Read More
Was this your vision to do this or was it one that the director had or how did this renovations come about?… Read More
And we went from individual museum type glass type windows to high tension wires like the ones that had been done at Pittsburgh Aviary which was probably the first place that that’s been done. So, we had all these high tension wire, I think there’s over almost 9,000 of them. Read More