New York City’s Fox & Fowle Architects, the Wildlife Conservation Society, several New York City officials, and various and sundry second graders on May 17 unveiled the renovation design for the historic Lion House at the Bronx Zoo. The architects report that the adaptive reuse project marks the first landmark building in New York to realize a LEED™ standard for sustainability.

The Lion House is the 1903 handiwork of the renowned New York City firm of Heins and La Farge, master planners of the zoo (and architects of Manhattan’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine as well as numerous subway stations). The zoo’s design centered on Baird Court (now called Astor Court), a large, formal, and symmetrical ceremonial space that was very much a part of the City Beautiful movement introduced at the 1893 World Colombian Exposition in Chicago. Sculptor Eli Harvey designed the Lion House’s lifelike stone lion sculptures and the medallions that adorn the structure. The New York City Landmarks Commission designated the Lion House, closed in the 1970s, a National Historic District in 2000.

Once home to big cats, the restored Lion House will serve as domicile to more diminutive critters native to Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world. The zoo reports that the “Madagascar!” exhibit will demonstrate the diversity of that island’s habitats, from the “bizarre, arid forest of spiny trees” of south Madagascar, home to ring-tailed brown lemurs, to the blue-eyed black lemurs’ “limestone formations, which cascade into a cave with a giant Nile crocodile.” It also will serve as home for the fossa, billed as a unique mammalian predator. The zoo maintains that the exhibits, also “reflect the work of Wildlife Conservation Society to preserve Earth’s remaining wild places and the wildlife within them.”

The renovated building, which will be expanded underground, will reflect advances in animal welfare, visitor experience, conservation awareness, and science education. Its energy-saving measures will include underfloor air conditioning, recycled gray-water system, fuel cells, and geothermal wells. The architects also worked an innovative skylight system into the original roofline, to give the indigenous plants the high amounts of UV light they require to thrive.

“The Lion House renovation represents the Wildlife Conservation Society and New York City’s commitment to the environment and the preservation of the dignified character of the original structure,” explains Sylvia J. Smith, AIA, the Fox & Fowle Architects principal leading the restoration project. “Soon the public will benefit from viewing the animals in their natural environment within the Madagascar exhibit.”

Joining Fox and Fowle on the Lion House restoration project are mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers Kallen & Lemelson; structural engineers Anastos Engineering; site, civil, and geotechnical engineers Langan Engineering; and contractor Hill International. The Lion House project is slated for completion in 2006.

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