Masonry Magazine August 1985 Page. 24
CLEVELAND ZOO
The architects came up with a solution that effectively integrates pools and beaches into a naturalistic rocky island setting incorporating constant level changes and even a three-level waterfall. It brings the viewing public right into the environment by means of a grade-level, grotto-like passageway that meanders around and behind the pools and opens to a stairway to an open observation deck.
Absolutely key to the success of the project is masonry, namely a reddish-yellow sandstone common in creekbeds of the Metroparks 18,600-acre system. And here came into play a meeting of minds over a golden opportunity. To the architect's suggestion that stone would create the perfect visual foil for the pools and give the installation an off-shore feeling, Metroparks' administrators answered with a sandstone buildup that had to be moved from the Euclid Creek reservation east of Cleveland.
They readily agreed to haul it to the site where the mason contractor, Sopata Construction Co. of Cleveland, could in consultation with Charles E. Rimer, field observing architect, erect the enclosure. Rimer selected specimen stones for beach ledges and others for a solid masonry north enclosure wall, masonry piers and masonry-faced concrete floors, steps and ledges.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's sea lion exhibit opened in July, 1982. Paramount in everyone's mind was one question: How would the seals and sea lions take to it? "Many times when an animal is brought up in one facility and that is changed, even if the new facility is ten times better, the stress factor is so great that he can't accept it and dies," general curator Kuenzer said.
Noted Collins, "These animals have a very important personality, every aspect of which we were concerned about. After all, our clients were really the seals and sea lions." But it all worked out fine, Kuenzer reported. And judging by the barks, splashes and healthy inhabitants, Cleveland's sea lion exhibit is a resounding success.
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24 MASONRY-JULY/AUGUST, 1985