Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoo Tecton exhibits

karenZOO said:
I am going to Dudley at the beginning of October mainly to see the Tecton buildings! and secondly the animals, shame they aren't an asset to the zoo instead of a hinderance !
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Karen, you might change your mind when you se them!

And Adrian, I seem to remember sometime back there was a plan to merge these two attraction together, something like buy one ticket and you could visit both sites, so I think they must have been in quite close contact with each other, but as so often happens with Dudley nothing happened.
 
I am sure they will still be beautiful chizlit :rolleyes: such a shame they are being left to rot, looking at the photos on here its a real shame that they are now so unsuitable for animals but still beautiful buildings (if you like that sort of thing :D which I do)
 
karenZOO said:
I am sure they will still be beautiful chizlit :rolleyes: such a shame they are being left to rot, looking at the photos on here its a real shame that they are now so unsuitable for animals but still beautiful buildings (if you like that sort of thing :D which I do)
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OK Karen, I do have to admit to you that I quite like the old bear ravine, but the polar bear pit is truly awful especailly when you know what it was used for and what the conditions were like for the animals in there (not the building fault I know!).

The fact that they are listed but are being left to decay, that I don't understand, but I guess that's not the zoo's problem to restore or look after them, I'm sure they would like them to fall down overnight (but not before your visit!)
 
The Tecton buildings are the soul of the zoo. There is plenty of quality ground not listed which is not currently being used around the site.

The only really tricky building is the Polar Bear pit, but there is nothing to stop the empty space being rennovated with models of its former inhabitants, if only to demonstrate how much the zoo has changed. The other carnivore pits really aren't that bad. The bear ravine has huge potential.

There is no reason to adapt the difficult buildings to house difficult species. Once the Orang house is gone I think people will be more sympathetic towards the listed buildings.
 
Indeed, other zoos cope fine with listed buildings. Dudley should be fine eventually if it does the right thing.
 
Lets hope the zoo finally gets some money and can carry out some of it's plans.
I wouldn't count on anything from Advantage West Midlands though......

Chris79 said:
The Tecton structures have been listed on the World Monument Fund's watch list, giving them international significance. The zoo are now more hopeful of securing funding for their restoration from heritage bodies.

Further details at the links below:

Birmingham Post - Life & Leisure - Post Features - Preserving some animal magic

Lubetkin's Dudley Zoo on World Monument Fund Watch List | News | Architects Journal
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Excellent news. Good to see them getting some recognition, even if it is pretty nominal for the moment.
 
I am none too happy. I know what usually happens with listed building status. It is no good for animal management or exhibits.

It is as if the architecture boys/girls are simply interested only in the state of a building WITHOUT anything living in it. From an animal welfare perspective .... (SAD MOSTLY)!!! :eek:

Also the very fact that they are listed buildings now does not naturally infer LOADS of CASH for zoo animal improvements ...

It may thus be no real surprise that I do not share your enthousiasm.
 
Kifaru Bwana - The Tecton buildings inside the zoo have been listed for a very long time now and no funding has ever been found to help the zoo out on the up keeping of these buildings in the past but this time round it does appear to be much more encouraging as I was told on my last visit to the zoo.
The buildings could actually help the zoo in attracting people in to it as they are of interest to many other people not just animal lovers.
We just have to wait and see
 
Great news I really think these buildings are an asset to the zoo and restored to their former glory the could pull in a new type of visitor to the zoo!! HOPEFULLY the animals can then live in harmony with the buildings and not necessarily in them!!

Has Dudley got a lot of 30s buildings, the old cinema in the road opposite is amazing!! Just wish I had photographed it, I am sure I saw other 30's buildings in that road?? (we missed the car park turning and went up the hill lol)
 
Karenzoo If you would like I will take photographs for you on my next visit on the 17th December and e-mail them to you if you p/m me.
 
@adrian1963

How about uploading the pictures in the gallery? Lots of pople are interested in the Tecton buildings, as this thread shows.

I would love to see newly taken pictures of them! As many as possible, in fact...
 
There are some already in the Dudley Zoo Gallery old and new
As I said will be going up next week so can try and get more upto date for you and evryone else who is interested, just let me know what you want
 
Basically anything that has not been shown already in the pictures that you mention. Perhaps some close-ups showing details of the buildings and the state they are in. Any new angle would interest me.
 
I see from the Dudley Zoo web-site that they have launched two books - one 'Towers and Tectons' about the buildings and 'Conservation at Dudley Zoo' . I cannot quite work out if they are two separate books or combined but it seems the two are available for £15 .

See : Dudley Zoological Gardens :
 
Brilliant thanks Bele, does seem to be the 2 books? for £15 but still looks good (+£2 postage in UK) I will be definately ordering :)
 
Tecton Buildings on old BBC TV series One By One

Hi all,

I have managed to upload some episodes of One By One onto YouTube. As the episodes are 50 minutes long and YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes I have had to split each episode into 5 parts.
A lot of the first two series were filmed at Dudley in the early 80's and as such you can see them in use as they were designed, i.e. elephants in the elephant house (ep 2, series 1) and the polar bears in their pit (various episodes).
To find them go to YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. and then in the search box type in my user name of pds2208 and they should all come up (think there are 15).

Thanks,

Paul
 
The zoo has received a national lottery grant of £123'000, as an initial first grant, going towards the upgrade of the 4 Tecton designed buildings on site.
The four buildings designed by architects from the Tecton movement at Dudley Zoological Gardens will be overhauled as part of a £1.15 million programme.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has approved a grant for £123,000 to kick off the project and the zoo must submit more detailed plans over the next two years to secure a further £970,000.

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/...dudley-zoo-s-tecton-buildings-65233-28986905/
 
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