With the holidays and all, the past month has been a blur and I didn’t have a chance to post many updates to the blog. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you had a chance to come to the Festival of Lights. I brought my kids during a snow storm and we had a great time. The kids went straight to the front of the line to see Santa since so few people braved the weather that night. We were pretty happy not to have to wait in line very long.

Rest assured, progress continues on Night Hunters design and development. I haven’t been down to the site recently, but I hear that the concrete foundation for the rotunda has been poured and the rest of the floors are scheduled to be poured next week. We’ve prepared several track casts–clouded leopard, ocelot, and puma–that our exhibits artist, Jessica, will use to make impressions in the concrete in certain areas.

I’ve been generating content for a computer interactive whereby visitors will be able to choose from a selection of text and images to create their own digital version of an ID sign for one of the small cats on exhibit. Their creations will actually be displayed in rotation at that cat’s exhibit. I think people will get a kick out of seeing the sign they created on display. What do you think?

I hope to visit the site to snap some more Under Construction photos to share soon. Until then, here are a few photos of some of the critters you’re likely to see when Night Hunters opens in May.

Fishing cat

Burmese python

Bat-eared fox

This week I’ve been working on hammering out some details on interpretive elements for Night Hunters. I’ve found some audio files for the soundtrack, but need to do some more research there. And I’ve amassed a pretty good collection of animal images to use on signage and for the computer interactives.

This morning, I met with a few of my colleagues down at the site to talk through the interior theming, i.e. where signs will go, where fabricated trees and rockwork will be, and we came up with some fun new ideas for interactives.

Here are some photos that show the progress of the construction (or shall I deconstruction?). I’m amazed at how much different it looks in just a week. You can see the original brick walls in some places. The parade of toilets sitting outside what used to be the women’s restroom is kind of funny. The construction crew needed an office space!

Ever since the Cat House officially closed on November 1, the wrecking crew has been hard at work ripping out carpet, tearing down walls, and removing old signs and interactives. I put on my sturdy construction hat and went down to check out the progress.

So what have I been doing while all this destruction is taking place? Planning for the new exhibit interpretives, of course! Right now I’m identifying particular animal sounds for the night noises soundtrack that will play in the front half of the new exhibit. Check back soon for another update!

Learn more about Night Hunters >