In the 1930's, German artist Joseph Pallenberg came to the Detroit Zoo to design a tribute to civilization's first zoo keepers, the ancient Egyptians. Constructed by twelve hundred workers from the Civil Works Administration in 1931, the giraffe house was open until 1962.
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A 1994 renovation allowed the building to re-open. Today, visitors can view the giraffes from within the historic structure.
Thanks much for the info and links Chlidonias. It looks like they are keeping this around for the historical value, not unlike London keeping their elephant house, Lubitkin (spelling?) penguin pool, etc.
perhaps not for the same reason though. The Casson Pavilion (the elephant and rhino house at London) and the Lubetkin penguin pool are listed buildings (meaning that they cannot be demolished, although they can be modified to some degree for new purposes; e.g. the penguin pool hasn't had penguins in it for a long time)
1200 workmen to build this? what did they all do lay one brick each? that seams a lot of workers, I assume they worked on a short term contract bases as part of some Great Depression work exercise
