Field Notes

Zoomazium connects our future to the present

By Terry Campbell
August 4, 2006

The nature based play space that Zoomazium offers will help to offset the emerging trend of indoor electronic-based entertainment and activity for children.

Zoomazium is described as, "the first of its kind, a purpose-built indoor/outdoor nature play space in the heart of a naturalistic zoo. It offers young children whole-body exploration of nature and animals in a fun, safe, dry environment all year long." The nature-based play space that Zoomazium offers will help to offset the emerging trend of indoor electronic-based entertainment and activity for children. Richard Louv, a widely recognized child development expert and author, believes that the increasing disconnection between children and nature will result in children that develop less appreciation for the environment. He believes that such a disconnection could result in fewer conservation advocates in future generations. Zoomazium was designed to facilitate connections with nature and educate our children about their role in protecting and conserving our environment in a fun and interactive way.

Woodland Park Zoo has been operating as a public space in Seattle, WA since Guy C. Phinney purchased the land and opened his estate to the public in 1887. The City of Seattle owns Woodland Park Zoo's land and exhibits, but in 2002 management of the operations and maintenance was transferred to Woodland Park Zoological Society. Woodland Park Zoological Society was responsible for coordinating the development and building of Zoomazium as part of a long range re-development plan that would further its mission of, "saving animals and their habitats through conservation leadership and engaging experiences, inspiring people to learn, care and act." Along with meeting the Zoological Society's mission this project would need to meet the City of Seattle's requirement that new city funded buildings, over a 5,000 square feet, must achieve a U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating.

According to Peter Dobrovolny, Commercial Expert with the City of Seattle's Green Building Program, the commitment to ensuring that Zoomazium is a green building fits with, "Much of the City of Seattle's mission in supporting sustainable building as a method to reducing the impacts on the services the City provides, specifically energy, water and solid waste. Construction budget limitations threatened the inclusion of some important green features in the building like the green roof and sustainably harvested wood. In the end, it was the importance of the stewardship mission that compelled the Woodland Park Zoo to reject compromise and accept nothing less than 100% FSC-certified wood as a tangible, visible and defendable expression of their mission."

In 2003, Woodland Park Zoo, City of Seattle — Green Building Team, Ecotrust and the design team from Mithun, including architects, landscape architects and interior designers, met to generate ideas for a LEED-certified Silver structure that would celebrate nature and allow children from around the region and the country to experience nature, learn about wildlife, and find their place in the natural world. Design charettes where project team members and outside experts can come together to discuss goals and offer solutions are becoming increasingly important for projects focused on pushing the envelope of green design and construction. In their attempt to obtain LEED Silver the project team identified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood products as possibly offering them credit under LEED; while meeting the Zoo's mission of helping to conserve animal habitat. No other forest certification program in the world, is as stringent as FSC on logging in wildlife habitat, and many at Woodland Park Zoological Society were relieved to know that they could build with wood products, that are inherently green, while protecting wildlife habitat and being a conservation leader.

Mithun worked closely with Woodland Park Zoo to design a building that provided uninterrupted open exhibit space through the use of large glu-lam columns and trusses.

Mithun worked closely with Woodland Park Zoo to design a building that provided uninterrupted open exhibit space through the use of large glu-lam columns and trusses. The resulting design provides Zoomazium staff with a comfortable open exhibit space with maximum flexibility for future exhibit ideas and space use. Brendan Connolly of Mithun explains why FSC wood products were integral to this project, "the Woodland Park Zoo is comprised of a series biomes, areas within the zoo designed to reflect the animals and their native habitats from different areas around the world, such as Australasia and Tropical Rain Forest. The Zoomazium building is set in the heart of the Native Northwest Biome at the Zoo, and so expressing the structure with FSC wood from this region was an entirely appropriate choice. The main exhibit space is conceived as a room within the forest, where the line between inside and outside is blurred, and so the glu-laminated timbers help to create this sense." With glu-lams selected as the main wood component to this project Mithun began to explore the market for FSC glu-lams.

Kent Goodyear of Ecotrust participated in the early design charrette to offer his expertise on the use of FSC-certified wood products from the Pacific Northwest. "Ecotrust had been working with Warm Springs Forest Products, that was producing FSC certified Doug-fir laminated stock, on connecting their products to the green building market.

We knew the raw material was available from a local mill but we needed to make sure the specifications were well written so that the glue-laminated manufacturer would understand the project's goal. The fact that a Woodland Park Zoo project used FSC-certified wood products from the Pacific Northwest in a space that is highlighting the Pacific Northwest biome is a great story for all those involved and the future visitors of Zoomazium."

For Zoomazium to earn the Materials and Resources credit (MRc) 7-Certified Wood, the project must, "use a minimum of 50% of wood-based materials and products, which are certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Principles and Criteria, for wood building components." (1) When Zoomazium opened to the public in the spring of 2006, 72% of the building's wood resources were FSC certified, allowing the building to achieve the MR7 credit. And while visitors come to the zoo to relax and explore, research shows that they leave having learned little about the natural world. Sadly, much of the information about our environment includes species loss largely from habitat loss. FSC products allow the zoo to offer another "what you can do to help" for visitors inspired by the animals they've seen or learned about. "What can we do to help?" is one of the most requested pieces of information from zoo visitors, along with "Where's the restroom?"

The true story of Zoomazium is to provide a lasting positive effect on young visitors, since the building's primary mission is to provide a space for urban youth to make their own connections with natural environments and wildlife. The FSC, LEED and green building stories are critical chapters of the Zoomazium story- offering our future generations solutions to problems that they will likely face. Jim Maxwell, Project Manager for the zoo believes that, "It is a natural part of the zoo's mission to show a better way — to go through the growing pains of finding and selecting new materials and new methods for their infrastructure and to come out on the other side of the process with new ways to live within natural limits."

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Zoomazium connects our future to the present

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