AZA Best Exhibit Award Winners

snowleopard

snowleopard

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AZA Best Exhibit Award Winners

Here is the full list of all the zoos and aquariums that have won AZA Exhibit Awards, and that includes both "Top Award" each year and "Significant Achievement". There are several fantastic, top-class zoos that have never won anything (Omaha, Sedgwick County and Miami) and so what is provided below is not an indictment of any zoos that are missing but rather a celebration of those that have excelled over the years in specific categories.

Bronx and Woodland Park have racked up 15 exhibit awards over the years between them, while the top two aquariums are somewhat unsurprisingly Monterey Bay and Shedd.

Including 2014 AZA Conference:

Zoos:

Bronx - 8 awards
Woodland Park - 7 awards
Louisville - 3
Minnesota - 3
National - 3
Oregon - 3
Philadelphia - 3
Saint Louis - 3
San Diego - 3
Brookfield - 2
Cheyenne Mountain - 2
Cincinnati - 2
Detroit - 2
Lincoln Park - 2
Toledo - 2
Point Defiance - 1
ASDM - 1
San Antonio - 1
Houston - 1
Brevard - 1
Los Angeles - 1
Cleveland - 1
Jacksonville - 1
Denver - 1
Audubon - 1
Fresno Chaffee - 1
North Carolina - 1
Columbus - 1
Fort Worth - 1
Dallas - 1
Topeka - 1
Temaiken - 1
Cal. Science Center - 1

Aquariums:

Monterey Bay - 4
Shedd - 4
National Aquarium - 2 (Baltimore)
SeaWorld Orlando - 2
SeaWorld San Diego - 1
Seattle - 1
New England - 1
H.B. Marineland - 1
 
Updated list that includes the 2015 AZA Conference:

Zoos:

Bronx - 8 awards
Woodland Park - 7 awards
Louisville - 3
Minnesota - 3
National - 3
Oregon - 3
Philadelphia - 3
Saint Louis - 3
San Diego - 3
Brookfield - 2
Cheyenne Mountain - 2
Cincinnati - 2
Columbus - 2
Detroit - 2
Jacksonville - 2
Lincoln Park - 2
Toledo - 2
Point Defiance - 1
ASDM - 1
San Antonio - 1
Houston - 1
Brevard - 1
Los Angeles - 1
Cleveland - 1
Denver - 1
Audubon - 1
Fresno Chaffee - 1
North Carolina - 1
Fort Worth - 1
Dallas - 1
San Diego Safari Park - 1
Topeka - 1
Great Plains - 1
Assiniboine Park - 1
Temaiken - 1
Cal. Science Center - 1

Aquariums:

Monterey Bay - 4
Shedd - 4
National Aquarium - 2
SeaWorld Orlando - 2
SeaWorld San Diego - 1
Seattle - 1
New England - 1
NC Aquarium (Roanoke) - 1
H.B. Marineland - 1
 
It's hard to put too much credibility into this list when Sedgwick County and Omaha have never gotten an award. Also I still don't understand how Elephant Odyssey and the International Orangutan Center could have gotten the award.
 
For this year I'm rooting for Houston, Oregon and Fresno Chaffee to get honors with a wild card of Detroit.
 
GraysonDP said:
It's hard to put too much credibility into this list when Sedgwick County and Omaha have never gotten an award. Also I still don't understand how Elephant Odyssey and the International Orangutan Center could have gotten the award.
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To win you have to apply. As far as I know, Omaha has not bothered to since they felt aggrieved by not "winning" for Lied Jungle, nearly 20 years ago. With new leadership and some very ambitious new developments, I would not be surprised to see them compete and maybe receive awards in the future.

Not sure about Sedgwick County, but what exhibits there would you suggest are award-worthy? (Just asking, although I believe on an overall basis the zoo's exhibit quality is very good)

I don't disagree about EO and IOC, although both were certainly out of the box and ambitious.
 
As for award worthy exhibits at Sedgwick County, I would say Pride of the Plains is without question a top three lion exhibit(arguably the best) in terms of naturalism and immersion as well as an overall state-of-the-art complex. Its use of vegetation, shade, rocks and resting places for the lions creates an enriching environment and the enclosures for wild dogs, red river hogs and meerkats are top-notch too. I also think Downing Gorilla Forest, Penguin Cove and Tiger Trek are among the best out there for their species. EO is a tough one because I'm not as disgusted with it as some people are (it's actually a decent elephant exhibit in terms of size and animal welfare and the jaguar/condor exhibits are solid) and unlike some really think Hoof and Horn Mesa needed to go (collection was great but the exhibitry was subpar) but the theming does not work, the architecture/design is in poor taste, the elephant exhibit is not immersive enough and the lion exhibit is really not that great. I find it amazing that the San Diego Zoo with its reputation, prestige and access to funding exhibits so many marquee species in substandard enclosures- giraffes, lions, grizzly bears, rhinos, zebras, kangaroos, cheetahs, etc. All I will see about the monstrosity named the International Orangutan Center is it is more appropriate for a Planet of the Apes theme park attraction than it is to housing and enriching great apes.
 
GraysonDP said:
As for award worthy exhibits at Sedgwick County, I would say Pride of the Plains is without question a top three lion exhibit(arguably the best) in terms of naturalism and immersion as well as an overall state-of-the-art complex. Its use of vegetation, shade, rocks and resting places for the lions creates an enriching environment and the enclosures for wild dogs, red river hogs and meerkats are top-notch too. I also think Downing Gorilla Forest, Penguin Cove and Tiger Trek are among the best out there for their species. EO is a tough one because I'm not as disgusted with it as some people are (it's actually a decent elephant exhibit in terms of size and animal welfare and the jaguar/condor exhibits are solid) and unlike some really think Hoof and Horn Mesa needed to go (collection was great but the exhibitry was subpar) but the theming does not work, the architecture/design is in poor taste, the elephant exhibit is not immersive enough and the lion exhibit is really not that great. I find it amazing that the San Diego Zoo with its reputation, prestige and access to funding exhibits so many marquee species in substandard enclosures- giraffes, lions, grizzly bears, rhinos, zebras, kangaroos, cheetahs, etc. All I will see about the monstrosity named the International Orangutan Center is it is more appropriate for a Planet of the Apes theme park attraction than it is to housing and enriching great apes.
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Agree on most everything you write, although with the exception of the lion exhibit I think Sedgwick's exhibits are very good, not great. Judged on value for money spent however, they go up a notch or two.
 
GraysonDP said:
As for award worthy exhibits at Sedgwick County, I would say Pride of the Plains is without question a top three lion exhibit(arguably the best) in terms of naturalism and immersion as well as an overall state-of-the-art complex. Its use of vegetation, shade, rocks and resting places for the lions creates an enriching environment and the enclosures for wild dogs, red river hogs and meerkats are top-notch too. I also think Downing Gorilla Forest, Penguin Cove and Tiger Trek are among the best out there for their species.
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I think that Sedgwick County is one of the top 10 zoos in the USA but I must admit that while almost the entire zoo is impressive there really isn't a single exhibit complex that would make my "best of" list. It is a very solid facility with few weak spots but there is no illustrious set of enclosures that would pull in tourists from the nearby highway. I've spoken with zoo enthusiasts who have said the same thing about Saint Louis (arguably one of America's truly great zoos - top 5 for sure) but River's Edge and Sea Lion Sound would likely qualify as terrific new additions that would rank as world-class.
 
So not even Pride of the Plains would rank high for your all time best lion lists? Also for Saint Louis I would say Fragile Forest and Penguin and Puffin Coast would be state-of-the-art exhibits. For years people have said the same thing about the Columbus Zoo but I feel without question Heart of Africa and Polar Frontier have proven this judgment wrong.
 
GraysonDP said:
So not even Pride of the Plains would rank high for your all time best lion lists? Also for Saint Louis I would say Fragile Forest and Penguin and Puffin Coast would be state-of-the-art exhibits. For years people have said the same thing about the Columbus Zoo but I feel without question Heart of Africa and Polar Frontier have proven this judgment wrong.
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Pride of the Plains is a terrific lion exhibit (one of the best around) but when I mentioned "best of" lists I meant overall...not just for a single species like a lion. Also, I agree with your assessment in regards to Saint Louis Zoo but I only referenced new exhibits and not the many great older ones at that zoo (Fragile Forest, Insectarium, Reptile House, Penguin & Puffin Coast, etc). I actually think that Saint Louis is challenging Omaha for the #2 zoo in the nation...after San Diego.
 
Saint Louis is great. I've got to say that I think Bronx is superior to Omaha and San Diego in terms of exhibitry, especially when you compare the quality of megafauna exhibits at the three institutions.
 
For many years there were two categories (Top Honors & Significant Achievement), but since 2015 the AZA added an 'Innovation' category. Also, awards began to be broken up into "operating budgets less than $5 million" and "operating budgets greater than $5 million". Even those titles have been altered to greater/less than $8 million, which shows the cost of new exhibits at zoos in America!

This all-time updated list includes the 2020 AZA Conference:

Zoos:

Bronx - 8 awards
Woodland Park - 7 awards
Oregon - 5
Philadelphia - 4
San Diego - 4
Brookfield - 3
Cincinnati - 3
Detroit - 3
Jacksonville - 3
Louisville - 3
Minnesota - 3
National - 3
Saint Louis - 3
Cheyenne Mountain - 2
Columbus - 2
Lincoln Park - 2
Nashville - 2
San Diego Safari Park - 2
Toledo - 2
Point Defiance - 1
ASDM - 1
San Antonio - 1
Houston - 1
Brevard - 1
Los Angeles - 1
Cleveland - 1
Denver - 1
Audubon - 1
Fresno Chaffee - 1
North Carolina - 1
Fort Worth - 1
Dallas - 1
Sequoia Park - 1
Topeka - 1
Great Plains - 1
Assiniboine Park - 1
Temaiken - 1
Cal. Science Center - 1
Maryland - 1
Henry Vilas - 1
Sedgwick County - 1
Knoxville - 1
Oakland - 1
Omaha - 1
National Aviary - 1

Aquariums:

Monterey Bay - 4
Shedd - 4
National - 3
SeaWorld Orlando - 2
SeaWorld San Diego - 1
Seattle - 1
New England - 1
New York - 1
NC Aquarium (Roanoke) - 1
H.B. Marineland - 1
Cal. Academy of Sciences - 1
South Carolina - 1
 
Thank you for starting this thread and updating it @snowleopard! Bronx and Woodland Park are in the lead, haven’t been to either but they are on my bucket list and have many exhibits I want to see badly :p I’ve noticed that San Diego Zoo Global in a current trend of winning exhibit awards, I counted 4(2 for the Zoo and 2 for the Safari Park). If I were to place my bets, I can assume that upcoming SDZ Children’s Zoo and future re-imagining of SDZSP Elephant Valley will be some winners. Some of the recent winners, within the past 10 years, I am dying to see are:

Heart of Africa at Columbus Zoo

Penguin Coast at the Maryland Zoo

Journey to Churchill at Assiniboine Park Zoo

Elephant Lands at Oregon Zoo

California Trail at Oakland Zoo
 
Julio C Castro said:
Thank you for starting this thread and updating it @snowleopard! Bronx and Woodland Park are in the lead, haven’t been to either but they are on my bucket list and have many exhibits I want to see badly :p I’ve noticed that San Diego Zoo Global in a current trend of winning exhibit awards, I counted 4(2 for the Zoo and 2 for the Safari Park). If I were to place my bets, I can assume that upcoming SDZ Children’s Zoo and future re-imagining of SDZSP Elephant Valley will be some winners. Some of the recent winners, within the past 10 years, I am dying to see are:

Heart of Africa at Columbus Zoo

Penguin Coast at the Maryland Zoo

Journey to Churchill at Assiniboine Park Zoo

Elephant Lands at Oregon Zoo

California Trail at Oakland Zoo
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The California Trail is definitely quite impressive and if you're ever in the area I highly recommend checking it out. I also have been to Elephant Lands but unfortunately didn't get to see much of the exhibit. Seemed really nice though.
 
Hipporex said:
The California Trail is definitely quite impressive and if you're ever in the area I highly recommend checking it out. I also have been to Elephant Lands but unfortunately didn't get to see much of the exhibit. Seemed really nice though.
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I really want to make a trip up to Northern Cali to visit the Oakland Zoo and Fresno Chaffee Zoo one day, hopefully the pandemic is thing of the past by then :oops:
 
Just wanted to make a small note of something I noticed in the past decade(2011-2020) of awards: there is a trend for 5 animal species which are the focus of the exhibits seemingly gathered the most awards. Here are the species:

Elephants: 4 awards(LA, Sedgwick County, Oregon, Cleveland Metroparks)

Tigers: 3 awards(SDZSP, Nashville, Jacksonville)

Sea Lions: 2 awards(Fresno Chaffee, St Louis)

Sea Turtles: 2 awards(North Carolina Aquarium, South Carolina Aquarium)

Penguins: 2 awards(Detroit, Maryland)

To those seasoned zoo travelers here in the states or globally, are these species seeing a current trend of new exhibits established frequently? In my opinion, elephants and tigers make complete sense why they have new and innovative exhibits are built. They’re charismatic megafauna that always amaze zoo visitors, must see for many. Sea lions are highly entertaining and always draw crowds. Sea turtles and penguins are the ones that surprise me but in a good way. I love both actually and always seek them when out at zoos or aquariums. But could they be or actually are the modern day superstars and incentives for state of the art exhibits being built?
 
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