Perhaps Hancocks criticized this exhibit as stated above, but I doubt the concern was about the lack of the type of trite additions that seem to be added to so many European and American zoos under the banner of "immersion" (rough wooden paths etc.). Plants and landforms, not cheesy theme park human artifacts, typify the immersion experiences Hancocks created in Seattle, Tucson and Melbourne. St. Louis' Bird House is very nice, even excellent, but then so is Hancocks' "magnum opus," the African savanna area in Seattle.
Oh yes - although I've not been to the key Hancocks-inspired zoos, I very much like what he has to say, and agree to a very large extent with his philosophy - except, crucially,in so far as there is an inherent suggestion in what he says that that is the only way to do things. I think, like anyone who is positing a particular point of view, it behoves him to make it a black-and-white issue ("this is the way to do things") when the truth is somewhat greyer (there are many ways to skin a cat). So give me St Louis, and give me Seattle.
Oh yes - although I've not been to the key Hancocks-inspired zoos, I very much like what he has to say, and agree to a very large extent with his philosophy - except, crucially,in so far as there is an inherent suggestion in what he says that that is the only way to do things. I think, like anyone who is positing a particular point of view, it behoves him to make it a black-and-white issue ("this is the way to do things") when the truth is somewhat greyer (there are many ways to skin a cat). So give me St Louis, and give me Seattle.
Agreed. However, some of Hancock's criticism focuses on the many, many zoo exhibits that fail to reveal ANY redeeming design sense--whether naturalistic or attractive and well-conceived architectural spaces like the St. Louis buildings. Countless examples of concrete "rock" grottoes, "honest" steel and wood farmyard cages, featureless wire paddocks etc. litter the zoo world. Good design can take many forms, but unfortunately thoughtless, poor or non-design prevails in most zoos.
