snowleopard

Abandoned Polar Bear Enclosure

May 5th, 2012. This enclosure is not associated with the aquarium but is located via a pathway that is only a couple of minutes away. Stanley Park used to have a small zoo within its 1,000 acres, and it was closed in 1996. The last polar bear died in late 1997 and this bear pit has now sat empty for 15 years.
Does anyone know of any modernist-style enclosures like this one still in use in North American zoos? Modernist, in this case, referring to artistic use of shapes, generally in poured concrete, rather than the more functional "bathroom-tile" style of exhibits. I don't think they were ever quite so common as in Europe but they were still once relatively widespread for larger marine animals and primates -- for example the former polar bear exhibits at Como Park or Louisville, the original dolphin pool at the National Aquarium, or the ape house at Kansas City. I can't think of any that I've seen used in the last decade.
 

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