Andrew, how I love the "stoof" you dig up! These are indeed all of the plans and drawings for the new bird house. The most staggering thing to me is that this will have taken 4 years, and they are adding under 3,000 square feet. To give you some persepective, the entire birdhouse is currently about 26,000 square feet, so what they're adding is very small, just larger than a suburban house. This addition is going to be across the entire front of the Bird House and will include an entryway, rest rooms, and two classrooms. That's all that will be added.
It's been two years, and none of this is visible. While there will be no use of underground levels for the public, I'm sure this time has been used to replace systems for HVAC and hot water, etc that go back at least 55 years to the last renovation. This does not mention trying to be Gold Standard LEEDS like the Elephant House is, but digging deep for geothermal heat could be one thing requiring both time and the steel cages used for working underground. If it's any indication of how much more heat there will be, the existing chimney must be expanded to three times its size to provide enough flue space!
Inside, the bird house, to be from now on called the chic "Bird Plateau," will indeed have three aviaries, but two will be one-story running the length of two sides of the building. A third side, called merely an exhibit, fills out the first floor. Every interior wall is curved like a bird's wing, and there is now much more keeper space, a commissary for food prep, and an elevator to the mezzanine. The old indoor aviary will remain essentially as is, but presumably with modernized dioramas and habitat.
The jewel of the whole project is restoring the original 1928 portico done in various shades in a mosaic pattern. Why this gem was replaced in 1965 by the boxy entryway we have/had now is beyond me, but you've all seen it! This beautiful entryway was put in the indoor aviary, and if you stood on the second floor of the mezzanine, it was right across the room, framing the first-floor viewing door where you first walked in! I always wondered how something as lavish as this could be in a bird habitat, but now it will be the entry feature, seen through the glass front addition.
There will be no more duck ponds out front, rather a tremendous, landscaped plateau with more beautiful curves that will put the visitor in a calm mood to enjoy birds. These plans note that this area, its substrates, and which trees HAD to come down reveal that this area must accommodate every possible size tent for fundraisers... Isn't there enough non-animal space already in a zoo hemmed in on all sides by a huge city?
I originally thought this was going to be a mammoth project based on the time frame and am rather surprised at the scope. I don't see anywhere mention of repointing, cleaning, and sealing the 80-year-old brickwork. A few closeups noof some colored masonry bird 'paintings' show how much both they and the bricks need some attention. Surely this would seem to be the time--after years of deferred maintenance--to at least paint the steel in the Great Flight Cage. Oh, the plans use the name Great Flight Aviary, since cages are taboo. My only worry is that the back area which housed the big birds looks much smaller. I don't know if that's really happening or if that section just doesn't fit on many of the drawings of the building, plateau, and bridge--and the bridge is called something like the Bird Plateau Bridge with illustrations and everything bird starting the moment you set foot on it! But the rear section looks to be only half the distance from the building that it was, and the path would seem to put the flamingo pool on the outer side of the path. Something I never knew:. A HUGE space behind all of the outdoor enclosures, between those enclosures and the back wall of the bird house, was devoted to a bird called the Black Crowned Night Heron. I don't know if this overall outside space reduction means that they'll no longer be around.
