Lincoln Park Zoo Pride of Chicago: Timeline

[pachyderm pro]

Between 2014 and 2021, Lincoln Park Zoo has experienced some of the most expeditious development of any American zoo. Through the "Pride of Chicago" campaign, over $135 million has been spent in the past seven years and has completely transformed the zoo. Four multi million dollar animal exhibits were constructed, one was renovated, and various visitor and infrastructure improvements were made. The zoo was also able to remove various outdated exhibits such as the Penguin and Seabird House, Bear Line, and the most infamous of all, the Kovler Lion House. Here is a timeline of all of the new additions that have been added under this capital campaign - notice that all of these projects carry the names of wealthy Chicago philanthropists and/or their families. It's a free zoo after all, someone had to pay for all of this!

2014: Lionel Train Adventure
2015: Regenstein Macaque Forest (Japanese Macaques)
2016: Kovler Seal Pool (Renovation)
2016: Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove (African Penguins)
2016: Walter Family Arctic Tundra (Polar Bears)
2017: Hurvis Family Learning Center
2018: Main Entrance and Searle Visitor Center
2021: Pepper Family Wildlife Center (Lions, Snow Leopards, Canadian Lynx, Red Pandas)

Eight major projects in eight years! In addition, there has also been several million dollars spent on renovating the East and West Gates and revamping the zoos Central Plaza, as well as general pathway replacements and other maintenance. An interesting trend to notice is that the zoo has begun shifting away from having several species from the same group of animal to just one species from the given group. Sun bears, Andean bears and hyenas were phased out for just polar bears. Various cold weather penguins and puffins were phased out for African penguins. Tigers, jaguars, cougars and other small cats were removed for just lions and a few others. While it's always disappointing to see species removed from the collection, its what needed to be done in order for the zoo to be as successful as it is now.

Now that the campaign has wrapped up, what's next? There will most definitely be a slow in development at Lincoln Park and thankfully all of the truly bad exhibits have been eliminated by now. With that said, there are still a few things that could use some work. The Helen Branch Primate House is definitely the weakest exhibit left with dozens of primates kept indoors with no outdoor access besides the gibbons. Far from terrible, but definitely something that will need to be addressed sooner than later. The hoofstock area is the one other major zone that needs an overhaul. It's a rather bland series of paddocks with a typical unexciting species line up - with a few exceptions. There are a few other flaws that I would like to see addressed - the all indoor pygmy hippo exhibit and slightly smallish bald eagle and snowy owl aviaries could definitely use some modifications, and I also find the savannah looking increasingly void of life in recent years - but in reality there isn't anything bad left at the zoo. That is extremely commendable, especially considering how the zoo was a decade ago.

I've gone back and fourth on this, but now that "Pride of Chicago" has come to an end, I genuinely think I view Lincoln Park as superior to Brookfield. While Brookfield has remained stagnant and has arguably decreased in quality, Lincoln Park has made spectacular leaps and bounds in progress. Never thought I'd see the day where I would feel this way.

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks for the great review of the past 7 years of Lincoln Park Zoo. It's amazing what can happen when $135 million is pumped into a zoo, with a steady rate of new exhibits that are almost Omaha-like in terms of quality and cost. I find it fascinating to see how some major American zoos have barely changed in the past decade (Woodland Park, Brookfield, Honolulu, Minnesota) and suddenly those facilities all appear a little stagnant. By contrast, there are many zoos that have spent tens of millions on new exhibits (Lincoln Park, Omaha, San Diego, Fort Worth) and suddenly those particular zoos feel like they are going upwards in quality. Oregon Zoo has overhauled close to 50% of its acreage since 2008, when a $125 million bond was approved by the public. Houston Zoo has also overhauled probably 50% of its acreage in the past dozen years and now both Oregon and Houston are massively improved zoos.

As for Lincoln Park Zoo, I wonder if the Primate House could be tweaked to resemble what has recently been done at Saint Louis Zoo. If Lincoln Park would be willing to add external exhibits going into the South Lawn, or north of the Regenstein Center for African Apes, then that seems possible judging by the online map. Would there be space for expansion next to the Primate House? The hoofstock section is a bit boring, but if the zoo wanted a whole new area there then would truly be fascinating. There are many influential, wealthy donors in the Chicago area who could probably be enticed to give money towards a huge Asian or South American themed indoor rainforest.

 

[Gondwana]

Impressive job by Lincoln Park. I will say, though, that I'd expect a zoo to wind up with more than four species worth of new exhibits when spending that amount of money. I don't bemoan the zoo's focus on one big species for each project, but it would have been great to include some supporting small animal exhibits, maybe even freeing up space in the bird or small mammal/reptile houses to hold more endangered species. I guess that's the trend in American zoos though, and even Omaha isn't immune with their most recent big-ticket exhibit consisting of a single pinniped enclosure. I hope at some point the trend shifts back in the other direction and we again see more ambitious developments like Omaha's Lied Jungle or Lincoln Park's African Journey.

 

[Tapir Master]

10 years really made a huge difference for Lincoln Park Zoo. It really makes the old "It's New" Lincoln Park ad age very poorly (in a good way).

Whatever new direction the zoo takes, I will be all for it if it means getting exhibit with the same quality as these new additions, especially with how the new Pepper Wildlife Center turned out. I'm afraid that there's not much left to work with as far as space for expanding outside the zoo, but they've did their best for what they had. Thank all the generous donors for making this possible.

 

[Milwaukee Man]

It is astonishing how much Lincoln Park has updated since around the 2010’s. I didn’t visit until a couple months ago, but have followed the Zoo quite a bit online. The one thing that stuck out to me was just how excellently the Zoo utilized its fairly limited space, especially with the polar bear exhibit and from what I saw when the Pepper Family Wildlife Center was under construction.

I wonder if the Primate House could be tweaked to resemble what has recently been done at Saint Louis Zoo. If Lincoln Park would be willing to add external exhibits going into the South Lawn, or north of the Regenstein Center for African Apes, then that seems possible judging by the online map. Would there be space for expansion next to the Primate House? The hoofstock section is a bit boring, but if the zoo wanted a whole new area there then would truly be fascinating. There are many influential, wealthy donors in the Chicago area who could probably be enticed to give money towards a huge Asian or South American themed indoor rainforest.

I thought of something similar for the primates, or at the very least some overhead chutes to rotate through. Also, correct me if I’m mistaken, but I thought I read (from zoophoria I believe it was) that the hoofstock area was going to become an Asian section further down the line?

 

[pachyderm pro]

As for Lincoln Park Zoo, I wonder if the Primate House could be tweaked to resemble what has recently been done at Saint Louis Zoo. If Lincoln Park would be willing to add external exhibits going into the South Lawn, or north of the Regenstein Center for African Apes, then that seems possible judging by the online map. Would there be space for expansion next to the Primate House? The hoofstock section is a bit boring, but if the zoo wanted a whole new area there then would truly be fascinating. There are many influential, wealthy donors in the Chicago area who could probably be enticed to give money towards a huge Asian or South American themed indoor rainforest.

It would be very neat for Lincoln Park to create a series outdoor habitats similar to "Primate Canopy Trails," however I'm not sure if it would be possible. The zoo wouldn't want to touch the south lawn as they often have events and holiday displays in that space, and while there is some land north of the Center for African Apes, it's not very large and because of the way it's set up it would be difficult to access. Imo the best option is to gut the interior and turn the building into something completely different.

Impressive job by Lincoln Park. I will say, though, that I'd expect a zoo to wind up with more than four species worth of new exhibits when spending that amount of money. I don't bemoan the zoo's focus on one big species for each project, but it would have been great to include some supporting small animal exhibits, maybe even freeing up space in the bird or small mammal/reptile houses to hold more endangered species. I guess that's the trend in American zoos though, and even Omaha isn't immune with their most recent big-ticket exhibit consisting of a single pinniped enclosure. I hope at some point the trend shifts back in the other direction and we again see more ambitious developments like Omaha's Lied Jungle or Lincoln Park's African Journey.

I agree that it feels like we have seen a slight shift away from big ambitious complexes that focus on many different animals, instead focusing on just major species. I do miss seeing more supporting animals alongside the star species, however in Lincoln Park's case I think having exhibits that focus on one species is for the best. They don't have nearly as much space as many zoos and if they wanted to include more species it would have had to have been a buch of small species and the loss of so many marquee species would have been a big blow. Not to mention creating big immersion type complexes has never been Lincoln Parks style. That's something I hope we see from Brookfield in the future.

 

[Gondwana]

I agree that it feels like we have seen a slight shift away from big ambitious complexes that focus on many different animals, instead focusing on just major species. I do miss seeing more supporting animals alongside the star species, however in Lincoln Park's case I think having exhibits that focus on one species is for the best. They don't have nearly as much space as many zoos and if they wanted to include more species it would have had to have been a buch of small species and the loss of so many marquee species would have been a big blow. Not to mention creating big immersion type complexes has never been Lincoln Parks style. That's something I hope we see from Brookfield in the future.

Oh I agree that it was the right move to focus on one main species in each case; I just think they passed up the opportunity for a bit more diversity. Not to play armchair zoo designer, but a penguin exhibit can be a mixed seabird exhibit on the same footprint (as seen in Brookfield), and unless I'm mistaken the interior south side of the old Lion house isn't being fully used, and might have been updated for small African species, or even something like a wall of vivaria for bugs or small endangered fish.

 

[JVM]

I have often thought renovating the hoofstock area into an Asian complex could be very rewarding - with the loss of tigers, sun bears, leopards, and such, the zoo has lost a lot from that continent recently that could be brought back (not expecting sun bears obviously) alongside the camels and takin, which have done well, possibly some new additions and some of the monkey species currently kept at the Primate House, such as the gibbons.

Mountain Zebra can be phased into African Journey for the loss of the Grevy's Zebra in this area. The Red Kangaroo and peccary loss would not be so easily handled.

I would love to see Primate House rethemed to Australia or South America in this plan, but not sure all of the monkeys could be moved elsewhere in the zoo.