The future National Zoo may be one in which walking the park’s steep terrain is a struggle of the past.
The Smithsonian Institution on Thursday will unveil to the public its preferred alternative master plan for the 119-year old zoo, which features an aerial tram running the length of the 163-acre park, expanded exhibits, new visitor centers and a public plaza on the current site of the Great Ape House.
“If we don’t plan for expansion, if we don’t plan for the future, then it’s just haphazard,” said Tim Buehner, the zoo’s design manager. “It just gets thrown in.”
The master plan was last updated in 1984. The revamped version features multispecies exhibits throughout the park, revitalized older exhibits and infrastructure, renovated and expanded administrative and educational facilities, realigned vehicular and pedestrian access, and, perhaps most important to neighbors, nearly 600 additional parking spaces.
“I think from the Adams Morgan perspective, the biggest issue for us is parking,” said Mindy Moretti, an Adams Morgan advisory neighborhood commissioner. “The zoo only has so many spaces which fill up pretty quickly. Then there are those who are attending a free zoo but are too cheap to pay for parking.”
The preferred alternative calls for the revitalization of the zoo’s Connecticut Avenue entrance and construction of a 300-space underground parking garage. A new “Mid-Point Entry” near the Small Mammal House would include a 1,128-space parking garage and feature a new pavilion and plaza on the site of the Great Ape House, which is to be demolished.
The plan recommends construction of an aerial tram that would stop at the zoo’s four entry points, to “assist visitors in traversing the topography of the Zoo and to provide a unique interpretive experience with views of the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park,” according to the zoo’s May newsletter.
“By 2016, we expect to be recognized as nothing less than the world’s finest zoo — an acknowledged leader in the areas of animal care, science, education, and sustainability,” John Berry, the zoo’s director, wrote on the park’s Web site.
For Woodley Park residents, the overriding concerns remain parking, traffic on Connecticut Avenue and “whether the tram will be at such a height that the people riding it are able to peer into people’s backyards inadvertently,” said Barbara Ioanes, vice president of the Woodley Park Community Association.
