Sphenisciologist
Well-Known Member
Hello ZooChat!
From a string of random inspirations and probably the most awkward time possible for me to be starting a new speculative zoo project, I am proud to say that I have officially begun the development of my next facility. I want to preface this by saying that Pristine Park Zoo is not being abandoned and it is something I will return to at a later date.
I find that I excel better on projects when I take a step back from them and work on a different side of my speculative zoo creativity. I've always wanted to make an aquarium because I often admire the range of species that aquariums keep, and I find that aquariums tend to do an excellent job in stellar exhibitry because it seems that there can often lots of room for "intentional" design, primarily due to the fact that aquariums are almost entirely indoors.
Many indoor aquariums were at the root of my inspiration for the various habitats of species exhibitry here, with the most notable ones being bits and pieces of the big three (Georgia, Shedd, Monterey Bay), Tennessee Aquarium, Newport Aquarium, National Aquarium in Baltimore, Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, Marine Mammal Center, and various others. While I wanted to honor the typical aquarium layout and pay tribute to many of the aquariums that inspired me to design this, I did my best to be intentional about making the immersive experience itself unique and create a flow of habitats that allows for valuable guest experiences beyond standard aquarium layouts. With that said, welcome, to the Albany Aquarium in New York!
Introduction
Located 20 minutes outside of downtown Albany, New York, the Albany Aquarium is a recently-developed project by the state of New York to allow for a more conservational approach to the city and serve as a signature attraction for both locals and tourists in the states capital. Although the aquarium will come off as having a "typical" layout of most U.S. aquariums, the Albany Aquarium has a huge emphasis on investing in local conservation and outreach projects to natural resource departments as well as other zoological facilities across New York State, through many sustainability and restoration projects, investment in scientific labs for both captive and animal species, and a communal determination among the staff of the facility to learn how we can take more scientific approaches to protect local species in Albany, to name a few and I will write more in-depth descriptions on these as the posts continue further along.
(TLDR; Albany Aquarium invests in conservation far beyond the zoo world but also asks how it better the zoo world both at Albany and other facilities - I will do my best with this thread to go beyond this.)
As for the facility itself, it is roughly 6.5 acres in size and stores over 1 million gallons of water across both two large indoor "typical" aquarium buildings and an outdoor zone in between. Below I have provided list of the total statistics for the aquarium.
Total Statistics
Public Buildings/Areas: 4 large public areas for guests, 3 of which are buildings. A welcome center where guests enter, Aquarium Building #1 (emphasis on saltwater fish and invertebrates), an Outdoor Zone (emphasis on non-aquatic species), and Aquarium Building #3 (diverse range of ocean and freshwater species).
Exhibits: 7 total exhibits but technically 8 as the seventh exhibit listed, Frigid World, was intended to be divided into two exhibits as there is an emphasis on different ecological areas in each, but because it flowed together nicely I combined them into one.
Total Animal Habitats: including tanks and land habitats, there are 126 holding areas for the aquarium's animals.
Total "Zones": Zones refer to more specific regions within the exhibit, typically referring to either one or multiple habitats working together to convey a certain them. There are 30 total.
Total Mammals: 19 species represented.
Total Birds: 59 species represented - mostly aquatics, but a good chunk of non-aquatics as well.
Total Reptiles: 26 species represented.
Total Amphibians: 5 species represented.
Total Fish: 232 species represented.
Total Invertebrates: 92 species represented - majority are corals, anemones, and mollusks.
Total Species: 433 species total are represented here, and hopefully the list will grow in the future.
Aquarium Map
Check the comments on the map to see a guide to the different exhibit buildings titles.
I hope you all look forward to this project, and I can't wait to share it with you all!
From a string of random inspirations and probably the most awkward time possible for me to be starting a new speculative zoo project, I am proud to say that I have officially begun the development of my next facility. I want to preface this by saying that Pristine Park Zoo is not being abandoned and it is something I will return to at a later date.
I find that I excel better on projects when I take a step back from them and work on a different side of my speculative zoo creativity. I've always wanted to make an aquarium because I often admire the range of species that aquariums keep, and I find that aquariums tend to do an excellent job in stellar exhibitry because it seems that there can often lots of room for "intentional" design, primarily due to the fact that aquariums are almost entirely indoors.
Many indoor aquariums were at the root of my inspiration for the various habitats of species exhibitry here, with the most notable ones being bits and pieces of the big three (Georgia, Shedd, Monterey Bay), Tennessee Aquarium, Newport Aquarium, National Aquarium in Baltimore, Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, Marine Mammal Center, and various others. While I wanted to honor the typical aquarium layout and pay tribute to many of the aquariums that inspired me to design this, I did my best to be intentional about making the immersive experience itself unique and create a flow of habitats that allows for valuable guest experiences beyond standard aquarium layouts. With that said, welcome, to the Albany Aquarium in New York!
Introduction
Located 20 minutes outside of downtown Albany, New York, the Albany Aquarium is a recently-developed project by the state of New York to allow for a more conservational approach to the city and serve as a signature attraction for both locals and tourists in the states capital. Although the aquarium will come off as having a "typical" layout of most U.S. aquariums, the Albany Aquarium has a huge emphasis on investing in local conservation and outreach projects to natural resource departments as well as other zoological facilities across New York State, through many sustainability and restoration projects, investment in scientific labs for both captive and animal species, and a communal determination among the staff of the facility to learn how we can take more scientific approaches to protect local species in Albany, to name a few and I will write more in-depth descriptions on these as the posts continue further along.
(TLDR; Albany Aquarium invests in conservation far beyond the zoo world but also asks how it better the zoo world both at Albany and other facilities - I will do my best with this thread to go beyond this.)
As for the facility itself, it is roughly 6.5 acres in size and stores over 1 million gallons of water across both two large indoor "typical" aquarium buildings and an outdoor zone in between. Below I have provided list of the total statistics for the aquarium.
Total Statistics
Public Buildings/Areas: 4 large public areas for guests, 3 of which are buildings. A welcome center where guests enter, Aquarium Building #1 (emphasis on saltwater fish and invertebrates), an Outdoor Zone (emphasis on non-aquatic species), and Aquarium Building #3 (diverse range of ocean and freshwater species).
Exhibits: 7 total exhibits but technically 8 as the seventh exhibit listed, Frigid World, was intended to be divided into two exhibits as there is an emphasis on different ecological areas in each, but because it flowed together nicely I combined them into one.
Total Animal Habitats: including tanks and land habitats, there are 126 holding areas for the aquarium's animals.
Total "Zones": Zones refer to more specific regions within the exhibit, typically referring to either one or multiple habitats working together to convey a certain them. There are 30 total.
Total Mammals: 19 species represented.
Total Birds: 59 species represented - mostly aquatics, but a good chunk of non-aquatics as well.
Total Reptiles: 26 species represented.
Total Amphibians: 5 species represented.
Total Fish: 232 species represented.
Total Invertebrates: 92 species represented - majority are corals, anemones, and mollusks.
Total Species: 433 species total are represented here, and hopefully the list will grow in the future.
Aquarium Map
Check the comments on the map to see a guide to the different exhibit buildings titles.
I hope you all look forward to this project, and I can't wait to share it with you all!