It is rather astonishing to think that this building (which is still an open-air concept in that visitors don't actually enter any doors) is still the only animal building at the zoo. Built in 1936 and celebrating its 80th year, the Reptile House is remarkably similar to how it looked all those years ago when it was lauded as a world-class achievement. The sunshine of San Diego makes the zoo an all-year destination and there is not the necessity of constructing much in the way of indoor holding areas...which is surely one of the major reasons why San Diego is such a renowned establishment. Anyone can visit in January or February and walk around in shorts and sandals and I cannot imagine doing the same in wintry Berlin, London or New York!
Shouldn't it rather wrote: "this building is the only animal building left of only a few"? The former Kiwi exhibit at Farn Canyon was also a(n) (nocturnal) animal building. The first Reptile Building was - if I read correctly the new history books about San Diego Zoo - a multifunctional Building. And I might have read that there was an exhibit for subantarctic penguins (between 50ths and 70ths?) a few steps right from the entrance. Also, there are further exhibits like the new turtle/amphibian complex, the exhibit for Langurs adjected to the Orang-Utan exhibit as maybe some buildings at the Childrens Zoo we can at least discuss about it if they belongs to that categorie.
It is rather astonishing to think that this building (which is still an open-air concept in that visitors don't actually enter any doors) is still the only animal building at the zoo.
There are a few other animal buildings at the San Diego Zoo.
There are now two reptile buildings in addition to the main reptile building (one for native California herps and one for turtles) that replace the old reptile buildings along Reptile Mesa.
There are the invertebrate house and the nursery building in the children's zoo.
A nocturnal building for aye-ayes (and other species?) was announced as part of Africa Rocks. It is unclear if that is still part of the plans, although the zoo has aye-ayes now awaiting a new exhibit in the new complex.
There are some interesting observations on this thread. The Kiwi House is long gone, the Invertebrate House was only just added 5 or so years ago, and the Reptile Walk buildings are also very new. Now the Reptile House has some company. The link below contains some information about a variety of other buildings:
