As construction continues down at the Night Hunters site, the creative team is making great progress on the plan for interior theming.  Zoo Exhibits Artist Jessica Bechtel put on paper some ideas of how certain elements of the animal exhibits might extend into the public space. The intent here is to blur those lines of distinction between the animal and the visitor and really draw the visitor into the experience. It’s pretty exciting to see how it is all coming together!

Fabricated 3D trees could extend out from the wall above the clouded leopard exhibit.

Plans include a fabricated 3D tree and rockwork on the face of the viewing window of the vampire bat exhibit.

The Mayan ruins in a tropical forest theme of the ocelot exhibit might carry out into the public space.

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!

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