City zoo consultant worked on Disney park

By Cindy Landrum  

JUNE 30, 2011 11:25 a.m. (0)

Consultants hired to work on a master plan for the Greenville Zoo led the design of the animal exhibits and holding areas for Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom and have worked on master plans for zoos in Columbus, China and Singapore.

Seattle-based PJA Architects + Landscape Architects will analyze the zoo’s site at Cleveland Park and an undetermined site of as much as 50 acres within the city limits as well as the zoo’s facilities and animal collections, said Dana Souza, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

“Our visitors say there’s a real charm to the Greenville Zoo,” Souza said.

But the zoo’s location presents challenges.

Six of the zoo’s 14 acres are used because it sits on a hill.

There are limited opportunities to expand because the zoo is landlocked. The parking lot is in a flood plain and is often full because of the popularity of Cleveland Park and the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Businesses and residences are located behind the zoo.

“There are some opportunities to expand,” Souza said. “There are opportunities to use the landform to our advantage.”

Most of the exhibits are at least three decades old and some do not meet the changing standards for modern zoos, Souza said.

Take the elephant exhibits, he said.

In 2011, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums changed its standards to require zoos to have three female elephants and room to store a bull elephant, Souza said. The Greenville Zoo has two female elephants and room for a male elephant holding facility, he said. The exhibit initially opened with only one elephant, Joy.

While the Greenville Zoo won’t be required to get another elephant, the master plan allows the zoo to have important discussions about what kind of animals it wants to keep and whether it wants to get rid of any species, he said.

Souza said the city is “not just looking to move the zoo.”

City officials know a new site would be expensive, he said.

Another site would allow for more parking for the zoo’s 250,000 annual visitors, he said, and, perhaps, spur economic development in another part of the city.

Souza said the public would be involved in coming up with a zoo master plan. “We’re not going to propose a zoo our community can’t support,” he said.

The master plan will cost $300,000. The city and the Friends of the Zoo are splitting the cost.

Souza said he expects it to take about seven to 10 months to complete.

PJA’s principals Patrick Janikowski and Jim Brighton had leading roles in designing the animal exhibits in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which many consider to have set new standards for habitat representation.

The firm designed Animal Kingdom’s Conservation Station, an interpretive animal nursery with behind-the-scenes views.

At the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, the firm designed an orangutan exhibit that features an enrichment device that allows the apes to activate a spray nozzle to cool off visitors on the exhibit’s boat rides.

The firm also designed six new panda habitats at the Giant Panda Breeding Center in Wolong, China.

The firm designed master plans for zoos in Columbus, Buffalo, Jackson, Mississippi; Oakland, Calif.; Norfolk, Virginia; and in several foreign countries, including the Netherlands, Tunisia, Guyana, Canada, China and Singapore.