The Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium is renovating its grounds over the next 20 years.
“It’s not a secret that a lot of our facilities are over 30 years old and at the end of their life,” said Jeremy Goodman, the zoo’s president and CEO. “What was state of the art 30 years ago is no longer state of the art.”
The plan will revitalize the entire Highland Park campus. Its first phase is projected to cost $54 million and will include a new front entrance and accessible path, an expanded giraffe barn, a revitalized orangutan habitat and the Zoo’s Education Complex.
The giraffe barn will have year-round viewing with an expanded giraffe yard, opportunities for public interactions and feedings, and hay storage, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium said.
For the zoo’s Bornean orangutans, siamang and Malayan tapirs, the new multi-level outdoor habitat will be on a hillside location for swinging, and it will include waterfalls and pools below as well. Offseason viewing in the winter will be available, too.
In the expanded education center, Goodman said, the zoo intends to open a full-time licensed preschool, which is something that about a half-dozen zoos have also had success in launching. The renovations will also include more classrooms and office space.
Each of three phases will take between five and seven years to complete, with the first phase breaking ground before year’s end, according to Goodman.
Guests will see a temporary entrance path implemented in November, as the new front entrance is the first part of the two-decade plan. Goodman said the new front gates will be ready in summer 2025.
The plan’s inception was over a year-and-a-half ago, Goodman said, and the zoo waited to announce it until the zoo received its updated Association of Zoos & Aquarium accreditation.
Zoo membership households received a survey in that time period to gather responses on what families would like to see at the zoo moving forward, as well as feedback on the current state of the zoo, Goodman said.
“We wanted to make it short enough where people would fill it out … but thorough enough to get us some useful information,” he said.
Around 23,000 membership households received a survey, and Goodman said the zoo received 9,000 responses with feedback.
“Twenty years is a long time for a plan, we know going into it,” he said. “At the end of the plan, things will have changed again. It’s a living document.”
Goodman didn’t say how much the 20-year plan would cost in total, as he said “it changes all the time based on economic forecasting.”
Money for the three phases will come from fundraising, foundations and state funding, he said, as the zoo is waiting to hear back on state funding requests.
“The community in Pittsburgh is incredibly philanthropic,” Goodman said. “We’re kind of leaving no stone unturned and really looking to get a variety of resources.”
He said he’s hoping the renovations will also be an economic driver for the Pittsburgh area.
“The plan will really position us to be just a world-class zoo and major tourist destination,” Goodman said.