THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9412290157
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 198 lines
Last week?
Last month?
Or has it been more than year since you've visited Norfolk's zoo?
Ask the average person in New Orleans if they have been to the Audubon zoo lately.
``Yes'' is the usual answer. Taxi drivers. Waitresses. Desk clerks. Bank managers. Shopkeepers. Last year, about a million people streamed through the city's Audubon's zoo.
``Yes, I go there three or four times a year,'' said a waitress in a white apron in a rundown sandwich shop that sells New Orleans style ``poor-boy'' submarine sandwiches. ``My daughter just loves it.''
Last year, more than 300,000 people visited the Virginia Zoo at Lafayette Park. Not too bad. And more than 60 percent of the visitors, according to zoo officials, came from outside Norfolk.
That makes the zoo one of the biggest draws in the area.
But the Norfolk zoo wants to go farther. It wants to be more like the Audubon zoo.
It wants to be the kind of place that everyone, from a 5-year-old girl to a senior citizen, likes to visit. It wants to be a place where people go just to hang out, to stroll. It wants to be a place that teaches people about how animals live and how their natural habitats need to be protected.
Last year, the Norfolk zoo began an expansion and redesign with the idea that the zoo will become more the kind of place its proponents envision. Using the same architect and firm that redesigned the New Orleans zoo, the city and non-profit Virginia Zoological Society have crafted a master plan to put the animals in settings that resemble their natural habitats.
Bears will scuffle around marshy ground that resembles the Great Dismal Swamp. Zebras will gallop on grasslands that resemble an African savannah. Tigers will pad along amid boulders and waterfalls that resemble an Asian jungle.
All this costs money. Where are they going to get it? The Virginia Zoological Society has set off on a campaign to raise $15 million for the first phase of the expansion.
``We have a campaign committee that is approaching local corporations, foundations and individuals,'' said Glenda Nelson, director of development for the Virginia Zoo Society.
Originally, the zoo wanted the state to kick in a third of the $15 million in funding. But that looks increasingly unlikely under Gov. George Allen's administration. That means that the city would need to ante up to half of the $15 million. The zoo would have to raise the rest through private donations.
With individual donations being a key to making the effort successful, that's one reason the zoo is especially trying to call attention to itself as a vital part of the region.
During the holiday season, a half-mile of lights were used in a display called ``Wildlights.'' Admission was $3 per person, and the zoo hoped to raise $100,000 from the display.
Just last September, the zoo held its cocktail party and dinner at the zoo called the ``Zoo-To-Do.'' It raised $33,000. Not bad. But by comparison, the New Orleans ``Zoo-To-Do'' raised $400,000.
Zoo backers see an expanded zoo as fitting into the region and the state in a good way. Now, the Virginia Zoo is the only major zoo between Asheboro, N.C., and Washington.
Other cities have done it.
Design Consortium, the New Orleans firm that specializes in zoo design, has worked with Memphis, Waco, Tampa, Albany, Sacramento, Seattle and Dallas, to name just some of the firm's clients.
These cities have made zoos major attractions. As the New Orleans zoo has grown in appeal, it has become more than just a place to see animals. A mom with a membership can just go for a stroll when she leaves the kids with dad for a while and wants some time to herself. Gray-haired men and women sit on the benches around the fountain and talk. The zoo holds rock concerts sometimes in the open areas of the zoo. People come and watch Jimmy Cliff sing underneath the limbs of a spreading oak tree.
Although the Virginia zoo has improved enormously over the years, it is still largely a place of bars, glass and concrete. There is often little to give visitors a sense of animals' natural environment.
The redesign would change this. It should give Norfolk, Hampton Roads, even the entire state, a place to come to. A place where people can learn about animals but also relax and enjoy themselves.
At a November meeting, the City Council had a short, but intense discussion on the merits and drawbacks of the zoo expansion effort. Councilman Paul R. Riddick has had the deepest reservations, even though he has continued to vote for the city sharing part of the cost of the renovation.
Some excerpts:
``The zoo is a wonderful project, but I'm wondering if this is going to be another added to the list of idealistic goals in Norfolk,'' Riddick said. ``We had Waterside, the opera house, Harbor Park and Nauticus.
``I really believe we need to concentrate for eight solid years on our neighborhoods. We need to make sure that the community doesn't believe, `OK, they've finished Nauticus, the ballpark and now they're headed off on another pipe dream.' ''
Councilman G. Conoly Phillips pointed out that private backers were paying at least half the cost of the zoo renovation.
``I can't imagine that we would go eight years without any kind of capital investment in the development of our city,'' Phillips said.
But Riddick still had concerns.
``While the private sector did invest in Nauticus and the other projects, we have to be mindful of our citizens. We can't expect people to continue to live here in a rundown city built for visitors. And that's just my opinion on it.
``The city's falling down around us. While we do have a ballpark, while we do have a Nauticus, we have citizens who pay astronomical water bills, who are only getting their trash picked up once a week, potholes every 10 or 15 feet.
``If we can find a way to do something for our neighborhoods and still fund projects like the zoo, that will be good. But until we can balance this thing so our neighborhoods won't be so dilapidated, until we find a good balancing act, I don't think that we should continually build a place where people could come to visit on the backs of our citizens and the children of our schools.''
Mayor Paul Fraim said the zoo eventually should become self-supporting. It's the type of attraction that makes the city a better place to live, and adds to the job and economic base of the city, he said.
``Great cities need to be able to do more than one thing at a time,'' Fraim said. A project like the zoo ``creates streams of employment, streams of revenue. The zoo is also an economic development issue, a quality-of-life issue, an education issue and a recreation issue.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
As director of development for the Virginia Zoological Society,
Glenda Nelson is heading up funding for the expansion. In the
background is Bob Kennedy with Samson, a llama.
Photos
These photographs as well as the photographs on the cover, were
taken by staff writer Alex Marshall during a trip to the Audubon
Park and Zoological Gardens in New Orleans
[three photos inside and a color cover photo]
A Zoological Comparison
Audubon Park and Zoological Garden in New Orleans Adult
admission: $7.75 (members free)
Number of species: 385
Number of total birds, fish, snakes, mammals and other animals:
1,659
Annual attendance: 900,000
Annual budget: $6 million
Employees: 192 full time, 85 part-time, 375 volunteers
Memberships: 35,000
Population of metropolitan area: 1 million
Virginia Zoological Park in Norfolk
Adult admission: $2 (members free)
Number of species: 106
Number of total birds, fish, snakes, mammals and other animals:
315
Annual attendance: 300,000
Annual budget: $1.6 million
Employees: 27 full time, 13 part-time, 113 volunteers
Memberships: 4,200
Population of metropolitan area: 1.3 million
Source: Directory of American Association of Zoological Parks and
Aquariums
Staff drawing by Ken Wright
VIRGINIA ZOOLOGICAL PARK MASTER PLAN
FIRST PHASE
Cost: $15 million.
Planned completion date: 1996 to 1997. This includes a year of
design work and two years of construction work.
What it buys: The African continent with giraffes, rhinos, lions
and other animals in settings that resemble their natural habitats.
The Dismal Swamp Exhibit, the centerpiece of the North American
continent. A visitor will see bald eagles, bobcats and cougars amid
bald cypresses and Spanish moss.
The Butterfly House. The existing conservatory at the park will
be rebuilt as an airy glass-ceilinged building where butterflies
alight on visitors. It will be the first on the East Coast, zoo
officials say.
A Tiger exhibit. This one exhibit will be part of the Asia
continent when it is fully developed in future expansions.
SECOND PHASE
Cost: No estimate yet.
Planned completion date: In the next five to seven years.
What it buys: Redesigned entrance, new visitor and education
center, plus several new animal exhibits.
THIRD PHASE
Cost: No estimate yet.
Planned completion date: In the next 10 to 15 years.
What it buys: The rest of the master plan. Finishing the Asian
continent, with such animal exhibits as gibbon apes, orangutans, red
pandas and Asian rhinos. The building of the South American
continent, with animals like spider monkeys, maned wolves and
penguins.
The rest of the master plan, with its Asian and South American
continents, would be built.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK ZOO by CNB