Little Rock Zoo officials are looking to construct an adventure aquarium in the next three to five years to become the destination’s “wow factor” and drive in visitors during the off-season.
The zoo board of governors met with zoo leaders and an architect Wednesday to discuss the zoo’s master plan and the possibility of transforming the tropical rain-forest birdhouse into a multipurpose, interactive educational center and aquarium.
The structure, built in 1936, would be gutted and redesigned, but the frame of the building would be left intact. Officials envision that when visitors walk into the building they would be in an open dome area. A giant saltwater tank would be to the right and house a coral reef exhibit. To the left would be a series of smaller tanks that hold lake species. In the back of the building would be a touch exhibit where visitors could pick up and interact with the animals.
“For the zoo to really be able to be stable and grow, we need to drive the gate. We really need people coming in at all times of the year,” said Craig Rhodes with the Wichita, Kan., branch of architectural firm GLMV Architecture. “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get kids to see and pick up and touch Arkansas aquatic animals? I grew up playing in the creeks. Not very many kids play in the creeks anymore.”
The adventure aquarium could also double as an after-hours rental venue and would include four collapsible classrooms where programs and interactive activities would be set up year-round.
Regarding coming zoo projects, the preliminary plan is to complete an Arkansas Farm exhibit within a year and then develop an otter exhibit within the next three years, with the adventure aquarium being built after that. But City Director Brad Cazort, who serves on the zoo board, wasn’t so sure that the aquarium is enough of a “wow factor” to prompt more visitors.
“I think this is a step in the right direction, but I don’t think we are there in my mind,” he said. “It seems to me we need to be thinking outside the box on this building. We need to try to find some use on this building that not just drives the gate,but drives the gate year round. Something where in the middle of January the people just sitting around say, ‘Let’s go to the zoo’ because there is an interactive experience.”
Carla Coloette, the zoo’s education curator, countered that advanced technology could increase interest in the new building. She mentioned other exhibits in zoos across the country that have interactive visual floors where if visitors walked across them one way, an image of flowers and trees growing would appear, but if visitors stomped across the floor, the image would change to wilting vegetation.
For the aquarium, that example could be altered to include water that would trickle from the dome ceiling and teach about the importance of taking care of waterways, Coloette said.
Rhodes said: “The zoo’s theme is water and how all living things rely on water and water is a precious resource. All of the sudden, the aquarium piece starts tying in very naturally with the education theme” of the rest of the zoo.
Staff members emphasized the importance of creating an experience that visitors couldn’t get elsewhere in the state and that wouldn’t be a repeat of other exhibits hosted by the Game and Fish Commission.
Like Cozart, the zoo board’s chairman, Tad Bohannon, said he didn’t know whether the plan was the “wow factor” everyone agreed the zoo needs.
“My only concern with the ocean [tank] is: Is the coral reef wow?” he said. “How long is it before every kid walks in and says, ‘Where are the sharks?’ So where are the sharks? You want ‘wow,’ so where are the sharks?”
Coloette said she and other zoo leaders hadn’t thought deeply into what programming the space would have. But the idea is to provide an educational, interactive experience that visitors could only get there and to develop a place that could be used as an attraction during all seasons, she said. The space - about 15,000 square feet - also has the potential to host moving exhibits that come and go.
The birds, primates and reptiles stationed in the building now would be moved to other parts of the zoo, and the Asia animal section of the zoo could be expanded if this version of the master plan is approved.
No action was taken at Wednesday’s meeting but the board of governors would have to approve developing the aquarium. No budget study has been done yet to see how much money would be needed to design the building.
“The idea is that there could be programs accomplished in the center [of the building], it would draw families in and that you provide that kind of environmentally controlled stage in the middle of winter. We could create some exciting opportunities there for the guests,” Zoo Director Michael Blakely said. “We have no other place in the zoo to do something like that.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 08/15/2013