Old Zoo, New Tricks

by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 05. 1.07
Travel & Nature

sealion_nyt.jpg

The Bronx Zoo is in the process of renovating Astor Court, which dates from the 265-acre zoo's early years. The $6.7 million face lift, which is taking place in stages, includes a 22,000-square-foot mall, an Italian garden of boxwoods and roses, the Rockefeller Fountain, and "a suite of Beaux-Arts-style buildings." More notably, the Lion House, which first opened in 1903, will be unlatching its doors next year after being closed for nearly two decades.

The 40,000-square foot, $49 million exhibit on Madagascar—expect to see a 13-foot Nile crocodile and ring-tailed lemurs, among others—will be restored in accordance to the environmental guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization involved in sustainable building design and construction.

One earth-friendly innovation is a storage-and-filtration system that recycles water from the zoo's laboratories, saving more than 140,000 gallons of water a year.

You'll also find many of the zoo's lights replaced with energy-saving Victorian reproduction lighting. In addition, the slatted benches will be swapped out for sturdier wrought-iron-and-wood versions. Who says you can't teach old zoos new tricks? :: The New York Times

Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)




th top picks