Bronx Zoo Restoration--Advancing into the future, while respecting the past.

This summer, the WCS will unveil a restoration of a multi-tiered antique Italian fountain studded with cherubs and sea creatures.
At an entrance path near the fountain stand bronze gates by Paul Manship, enlivened with bears, deer, monkeys, owls and herons.

The Lion House’s cornice still sprouts terra-cotta cats, but the huge stone lions that flanked the south doorwayhave been hoisted to a rear garden terrace, so the “Madagascar!” exhibit entrance can be clearly branded.

As early as the 1940s, the zoo began moving felines into more convincingly naturalistic settings with names like Lion’s Island. As the rest of Astor Court was turned over to offices, plans were floated to use the Lion House as a conservation school or restaurant. But WCS has geared up in recent years for a high-profile $650 million capital campaign, Gateways to Conservation, emphasizing links between its local and global programs. So the Lion House made most sense as a showplace explaining how and why the society helps preserve habitats on the island of Madagascar, home to one percent of the planet’s biodiversity.

In the exhibit opening in June – officially named “Madagascar!” – visitors will meander between carved-concrete cliffs and epoxy or concrete baobab trees (some of which conceal air ducts or structural columns). Skylights made of ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, developed by Foiltec NA of Cohoes, NY) let in UV light that plants and animals need, but are etched with square patterns that can be overlapped for opacity on hot days. Mesh walls divide habitats, so lemurs’ chatter will echo throughout the place. Photo-realist murals and mirrors back the exhibits, giving the narrow building an illusion of depth. Videos show animals under threats such as fires or forest clear-cutting, and under the care of WCS conservationists.

“We’ve created a stage set, with many, many layers to discover, so guests will keep finding something new each time they visit,” Chin says. “We want to inspire respect for wildlife while giving people a sense of immersion in nature, a sense of what has threatened the creatures on the island, and a sense of hope for change.”

“Madagascar!” is expected, of course, to boost zoo attendance while magnanimously educating the public. The building itself will also help the WCS revenue stream, since a rentable, restored events hall occupies 40 percent of the interior. Original truss work bands the hall’s vaulted ceiling, and pilasters and columns are crowned in sculpted lions or flora. Along some walls, the architects set slats alluding to the vintage cages – the wood species chosen was, fittingly, zebrawood.

Mechanicals extend deep under the hall’s polished concrete floor – the basement was lowered from 5 to 10 ft. into solid rock, and the building underpinned with steel to make room for equipment including a fuel-cell generator and a water-recycling system that also serves the nearby sea-lion pool. “There’s been so much complexity into fitting cutting-edge exhibits into a landmark building while meeting LEED-Gold standards,” Chin explains. The mechanicals protrude under a new back terrace, flanked by stone lions that originally guarded the front door. Chin explains that especially for young guests who can’t read yet, “We didn’t want lions at the entry that might confuse anyone about what’s exhibited here now.”

To give the long, narrow Lion House an illusion of depth, photo-realist Madagascar murals surround dense forests of epoxy or concrete baobab trees (some of which conceal air ducts or structural columns). Rubber branch tips will allow lemurs to make springy jumps.

After spilling out of the “Madagascar!” exhibit, guests are likely to encounter free-ranging peacocks and peahens. New paths crisscross Astor Court’s main lawn, which has been renamed the Peacock Garden, and boxwood and yew rows encircle flowerbeds in an adjacent Italian Garden. BCA’s team dug trenches to conceal upgraded services, such as power and data lines, and hundreds of original granite curbs defining paths and lawns were reset. The monumental double staircase was completely disassembled and rebuilt; along its brownstone treads rise garlanded plinths, scalloped grottoes, carved jaguars by Anna Hyatt Huntington, and terra-cotta balusters (replacements came from Boston Valley Terra Cotta in Orchard Park, NY). Fluted lampposts (from Architectural Area Lighting of La Mirada, CA) sprout brackets for paired lanterns around the court.

When the Lion House reopens, BCA will also unveil its restoration of an antique Italian fountain, a tiered stack of dolphins, sea gods and goddesses, cattails, cherubs, octopus tentacles and a swan. “The rejuvenated fountain will be a crowning touch on an impressive ensemble,” Kavenagh says. “It will be wonderful to enter the zoo again as elegantly as you were meant to originally.