Construction is officially
under way on the Detroit Zoo’s new Ford Center for Environmental
and Conservation Education, kicked off with a May 27 groundbreaking ceremony
by representatives from architect SmithGroup Inc., the Detroit Zoological
Institute, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and Ford Motor Company CEO and Chairman
of the Board William Clay Ford Jr. The $9.1 million state-of-the-art facility
offers a 40,000-square-foot learning place to support the ideals of stewardship
for the welfare of animals.
Located
along the zoo’s south edge, the new center will function as a gateway
to the exhibits and a portal to lifelong learning. The education wing
will contain seven environmental studios developed for hands-on discovery
through virtual dissections, wet laboratory experiments, group studies,
ceramics, and arts and crafts. The presentation wing contains a 240-seat
theater and two galleries. The first, a 2,500-square-foot exhibit gallery,
will house changing exhibits. The second is the children’s gallery,
which will display kids’ artwork to the public. The center also
will house a library and teacher resource room to provide educators with
tools that will include books, films, videotape, and CD-ROMs to supplement
curricula.
The architects report that they designed the new education center to
serve as a “participatory immersion experience,” with the
hope of offering “exciting and entertaining learning experiences
to thousands of school children and zoo visitors.” Learning experiences
are sure to be enhanced by the Wild Adventure Simulator, a virtual simulator
providing the opportunity to experience life from an animal’s perspective
in its native habitat. Based on NASA's flight simulator technology, the
simulator uses sight, digital surround sound, and almost two Gs of motion
to create a multisensory experience.
The new building represents the continuation of a successful client/architect
relationship between the zoo and SmithGroup. Design and construction of
the zoo’s main entrance facility, as well as continual site planning
in recent years have been the province of SmithGroup JJR, the firm’s
planning and environmental-design division. The new entrance incorporates
a grand arrival court, fountains, rich plantings, access drives, tram
tour station, visitor concessions, and a parking structure. Commanding
a corner of the zoo in an area considerably smaller than the old entrance,
the new facilities incorporate “bold landscape forms and lively
architecture” soon to be complemented by the new center, slated
for opening in 2004.
Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects.
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