I think you're being a bit unfair here. The vast majority of the building looks more like this with lots of greenery and dirt/mulch flooring. Yes part of that toucan/mammal enclosure has a bare floor but the enclosure goes further to the left than what my photo shows and the much of it has more natural flooring. Also keep in mind that 3/4 species in that enclosure are going to spend very little time on the floor. The enclosure is a pretty good size with some good height to it and the fixtures such as that hatch house offer the tamandua and porcupines some good climbing opportunities. As for the primate enclosure, I think my photo makes it look smaller than it is. The enclosure is actually a good size, has very good height, and there are plenty of vines and climbing opportunities. I understand that it is ugly-looking, but that does not make it bad. Remember that these primates will also be spending very little time on the floor of their enclosure. The outdoor enclosure looks rough, but it's also December in New England so we'll have to wait until summer to see how it really fairs.
Aside from those, I really don't know what you mean by "poorly-conceived exhibits". Yeah the terrariums/aquariums aren't very big, but they also don't hold any big animals. The walk-through itself is large and very green. One thing they nailed with this exhibit is the height, and I think the exhibit will look a lot better as the trees grow into it. Even as it is, though, the birds can still easily access the full space and I even saw one of the lion tamarins crawling around in the rafters so clearly it's accessible. The outdoor flamingo enclosure isn't the best looking, and the mesh/poles do take away from the viewing experience, but netting the birds in means they don't have to have their wings clipped to keep them from flying away which is a major benefit imo. You mentioned the otter enclosure in the comments of the primate enclosure and said it has "the nation's smallest Giant Otter pool" but that's simply far from true. As I said earlier, this enclosure is far larger than Philadelphia's original (which I understand still exists, and while they've added another enclosure, the animals do not have access to the whole thing at one time) and has a significantly larger pool than DWA. There is a main pool and a smaller pool and both of them go deeper than floor level. The main pool is pretty big actually and there's a small waterfall and a small water slide leading down to the second pool, which the two animals make good use of during my visit. The land area of that enclosure also is not all cement either, though I will agree there is a bit of it, namely in the mock rock work (but what makes this worse than other zoos with mock rock?). Below are two photos I did not post to the gallery that may give a bit of a better perspective on the actual size of the pools:
I will agree that the building didn't turn out very pretty and, as I said in my initial post, I do wish they had done a bit more, but this is still a great addition to the zoo and I appreciate the direction they're moving in. One thing I think we all need to keep in mind (myself included at times) is enclosure functionality/quality > aesthetics.
~Thylo
Yes we can certainly agree that this is a huge improvement over the old building (which at least partly appears to still be present). I, too, would be interested to hear some others' thoughts.
