@dmanwarren: Can you tell us a little about the history of the LA Zoo great ape exhibits? Were there no great ape exhibits when the zoo first opened in 1966? I'm curious why these exhibits weren't part of the first phase of the zoo given the popularity of the species.
What other exhibits did you work on at the LA Zoo? Thanks for sharing your historical treasure trove of photos.
@dmanwarren: Can you tell us a little about the history of the LA Zoo great ape exhibits? Were there no great ape exhibits when the zoo first opened in 1966? I'm curious why these exhibits weren't part of the first phase of the zoo given the popularity of the species.
What other exhibits did you work on at the LA Zoo? Thanks for sharing your historical treasure trove of photos.
Hi David, I am not much for the total history of the LA Zoo - Mike Dee would be a better person to ask. However I do not remember Gorillas in the very beginning of the Zoo at the new location, but you have to remember that the City hired a high rise architect (I am sure there was some reason to hire him) Charles Luckman and his son to design something that they weren't qualified to design. The zoo has suffered ever sense with terrible traffic flow, dead end paths, you name it it was done wrong.
I thought I did remember they had gorillas in the old roundhouse exhibits - the ones with a few natural rock, a moat, and a gunite mound. I think they had stock in a gunite company! I do remember having to go through the back of the exhibit to get into the work area and go right past a gorilla, who enjoyed greatly in the fact that he knew exactly when you finally relaxed and that is when he would charge the cage and scare the *^(*)&_ out of you. This happened two or three times a day.
Mike - do you remember any of apes at the zoo in the late 60's earlier 70's?
As for what I worked on - I was with Rock and waterscape and the first exhibit was the flamingo. From there we did the two gorillas, wolf woods, kokla, chimp, meerkat, and monkey island. After quiting the Rock (I wanted to teach) I couldn't get a job teaching (you would think that the summer was a great time to get a job teaching!!!) and Dr Thomas called me and had me do a few small exhibits, Penguin and then the Panda. He also got me a job designing a new zoo in Taiwain, several projects at the Cincinnati Zoo, and helped me get a job at Sea World building the penguin encounter. This all started my career in Zoo and aquariums.
Thanks for the very interesting information. I have been going to the LA Zoo since 1997 and frequently wonder about some of the history. The zoo does have terrible traffic flow. It is somewhat better now with the elephant exhibit completed...you can now move through most of the zoo without having to backtrack. I always wondered what they were thinking when they designed the zoo so that most of the animals are so remote from the entrance...your description of the original designers certainly explains that.
The zoo received 2.4 juvenile gorillas that were hand raised in the zoo's nursery. They were originally going to be exhibited in the Nubian ibex area, but. They were then moved into the current duiker roundhouse, chimps on the left and gorillas on the right as you entered from the public side. This roundhouse had glass fronts and a jungle gym on a bare concrete floor. As the animals grew, they broke one of the windows. We had 3 bear exhibits were the current gorilla exhibit is. All 3 species were eventually sent out to make room for the gorillas. The middle and the exhibit to its right were the first ones to be partially demolished. The gorillas were then transfered to the refurbished exhibits.
