Split Face Block Attractive and Durable Choice for New Elephant Enclosure
Split-Face block is the primary building material used in a new home for Houston Zoo elephants. The new facility provides individual bedrooms for five elephants and animal management facilities that allow the public to view the elephants while in their resting environment.
PJA Architects, a Seattle-based architecture firm specializing in zoos, designed the 7-thousand square foot structure to be flexible. The new holding barn allows animals to be easily rotated from one habitat to the other, improves keeper safety and provides areas for veterinary services and storage.
"This expansion highlights the Zoo’s ongoing work to save wild elephants in Asia. The Houston Zoo participates in elephant protection efforts in Malaysian Borneo, where we have seen the wild elephant population double in size since we began our support." --Houston Zoo
The holding building also includes a protected viewing window where visitors can see keepers working with the animals.
