Water’s Edge: Africa
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO | COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO | USA
Seamless Integration and Water Conservation
Whether rain or shine, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo provides for animal care, comfort, fresh air, and up-close viewing through the use of continuous indoor-outdoor pools and giant roll-up doors. In Colorado’s cold winters, the large windows in these doors provide views to the landscape beyond while keeping both guests and animal residents protected from the ice and snow. During sunny days and warm weather the doors fold away, letting the outside in and giving hippos, lemurs and penguins easy access to varied and enriching outdoor habitats. Guests explore a variety of African landscapes through meandering paths and bridges while being surrounded by animals large and small, including penguins, hippos, warthogs, lemurs and guinea fowl.
Get a tour of Water’s Edge: Africa from the animal experts at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in the video, below.
Project Features at a Glance
Outdoor walk-through penguin habitat with underwater viewing and crashing wave surges; indoor penguin habitat with a dive rock, dual-pool slide, kelp and moveable furnishings, rock-crevice nesting, and a penguin program encounter area
Continuous, indoor-outdoor penguin pool with overhead door to make the wall between inside and out disappear in good weather
One-of-a kind, hand crafted driftwood wave sculpture and seating inside
Restrooms with views into the indoor penguin pool
Continuous indoor-outdoor hippo pool with an island of lemurs at it’s center; overhead doors let the outside in during good weather
Hippo demonstration area and scale; multi-person guest scale (Can a scale full of people weigh as much as a hippo? Find out at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.)
Indoor rotational habitats for hippos, birds and warthogs
Outdoor grazing areas for hippos; suspended adventure bridge overhead
Up-close hippo viewing in multiple locations
Rotational species indoor viewing area
Nature play area and wilderness walk
Multiple waterfalls, including a black granite, knife edge waterfall, hippo bridge waterfall, and hippo enrichment waterfall; water-saving filtration system
SH|R'S ROLE
EXHIBIT DESIGN: Project prime; full services design, construction administration
COLLABORATION WITH
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO: Client
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: CSNA Architects
CIVIL ENGINEERING: Kiowa Engineering
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING: CTL Thompson
FILTRATION SYSTEM ENGINEERING: Satchell Engineering & Associates
MEP ENGINERING: Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING: Structural Design Studio