Brookfield Zoos Historic Art Deco Pachyderm House--Exterior

Brookfields Pachyderm house is now closed for renovations. A huge, monstrous building that while being a monument to the architect, was horrible for the animals. Over the years some of the dividing walls were removed to make bigger indoor exhibits, and pastel colors painted on the walls with scenes of African Acacia forests. Chicago was still flying from the great Century of Progress World Fair in 1933 and I think alot of that "rush" carried over to the zoo and their buildings which opened in 1934. Brookfield was the first zoo in North America to exhibit Pandas. As often happens when an architect builds a "monument to self" the zoo staff and the animals have been the one's putting up with it's shortcomings. Luckily many of these historic building are given landmark status or they would go the way of the Monkey House at the Melbourne Zoo. What a shame and a terrible loss. The clip above at the Brookfield Zoo in 1935 has some footage of the outdoor elephant exhibit starting at 3:21.