I am extremely happy that the Zoo is making an effort to improve the exhibits. I do wish they would be done in a better quality then the last few exhibits. So many other zoos, including much smaller zoos than LA, are doing very high quality exhibitry which I am not seeing at the zoo. They are good but should be much better.
I am extremely happy that the Zoo is making an effort to improve the exhibits. I do wish they would be done in a better quality then the last few exhibits. So many other zoos, including much smaller zoos than LA, are doing very high quality exhibitry which I am not seeing at the zoo. They are good but should be much better.
Thanks for your comments, I don't mean to be critical at the work, but I feel the zoo is tied down with the City low bid and high requirements for minoritys. Most of the good projects I know were all not given to the low bidder. Look at all of the New York Zoo projects - for the most part they were neogiated with the exhibit contractor and also would have the contract directly with the exhibit contractor. This prevents the GC from trying to make cuts which always come from the exhibits for they are the last ones on site. Even through all of the NY projects are city projects, the society are smart enough to take the exhibit contract away from the city and the GC. Perhaps this can't be done with the existing system with the city of LA, and might be able to be done when and if the society or others take over the Zoo. I certainly hope so.
I am an exhibit contractor that has been in the business for over thirty years and I won't even bid on a LA Zoo project due to all of the restrictions and paperwork, even through I live in LA. I use to work at the zoo with Warren Thomas (Rock and Waterscapes) and did several projects there, the last being the design of the LA Childrens Zoo. Since then it has been a low bid system. Many smaller towns - Omaha, Cincinnati, St Louis, and many more all are doing high quality exhibits but they are bid through the society, not through the city. Even for profit aquariums such as Ripleys take the exhibits out of the hands of the GC. It makes for a better project.
As for the designs of the last few projects, I think they are good, considering they have to be designed to a budget. It is just the quality of the companies building the exhibits that is not great.
Again I don't feel the exhibits are bad by any means, I just have seen much better exhibits else where.
