Based on the video, the formation of the design, and the size of the birds on that design - it appears they left the size of the land area the same, which I would call far from tiny. Especially for penguins. Their original exhibit was smaller than the size of their current/future land area. As for the path size over exhibit size, my guess for that choice was to keep a smooth guest flow. The left side is the pasagge towards Wolf Woods from the main pathway. The middle view was part of the sea lion pool, and the other viewings were already existing. It'll be approximately 2600 sq ft, for reference, that's roughly the size of Woodland Park's.
Sep. 2016 - Sea Lion Falls - ZooChat