National Zoo Weighs a Sea Change

Broad Updates Could Include an Aerial Tram, New Exhibits

The National Zoo has begun forming a new master plan -- its first in 20 years -- that could lead to extensive renovations, including a ski-lift-style aerial tram, parking garages and major additions to the animal exhibition space.

The ideas, explained in detail for the first time at an open house Thursday night, are part of what Director John Berry said is a 10-year push to make the zoo the best in the world by 2016. Zoo officials stressed that none of the upgrades under consideration has been adopted and that all are being presented for the public to review.

The most striking possible change would be the addition of the aerial tram, which zoo officials said would help visitors up and down the long, steep hill on which the 118-year-old animal park is situated. Officials noted that the hill's grade is equivalent to the height a 16-story building and is famously tiring, especially on hot days.

"The big issues . . . were how do we get people from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill," said Tim Buehner, the zoo's design manager.

The aerial tram would have three stops and operate at tree-top level, which would afford visitors unique views of the exhibits and enable zoo experts to explain the science of life in the forest tree canopy, officials said.

But the zoo is not yet set on the idea, with officials wondering if such a tram would be appropriate. "We're very concerned about the aesthetics of what an aerial tram might be," said zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson. "And we need to keep that in line with the aesthetics of our park."

Yet, it could be "an amazing opportunity," she said. "Because the concept is to run it at maybe 20 feet height along the tree line, which just not only gives you an opportunity to view the animals from an entirely different perspective" but new educational opportunities as well.

The zoo is also considering a ground-level tram.

Zoo officials said it was too early in the process to say exactly when any changes might happen, what they might cost or what kinds of animals would be in any new exhibits. They did say they hoped to have a list of preferred upgrades by the fall.

The plans also address parking, with one version calling for the construction of a state-of-the-art aboveground parking garage, and another for an underground parking garage. With the aboveground garage, total parking spaces would increase from the current 860 to about 1,300. The plan for underground parking also calls for the removal of two aboveground parking lots and would result in the decrease of total spaces to 690, officials said.

The plan also considers eliminating other zoo parking lots to make way for new exhibit areas, especially where more animals could be placed together in so-called "mixed habitats," instead of in the old-fashioned, separated style, zoo officials said.

Details are available, and public comment can be made through July 31, at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/goto/masterplan.

"I think it's really, really exciting," said Donald E. Moore III, the zoo's associate director for animal care. "The National Zoo was kind of built up in the 1970s and then neglected for a long time. . . . Now we have the opportunity to have a really, really exciting renovation."

Some neighbors of the zoo, however, were not so excited.

"My initial reaction is absolute horror and shock," said Elizabeth Dunn, who said she lives in an apartment on a side street adjacent to zoo property. Dunn said she has been tormented by the commotion from construction vehicles that have used the side street to access other zoo work projects.

The zoo has grouped the various changes into two broad alternatives -- A and B -- adding that there is also an option that no new changes would take place. Buehner said that elements of A and B might, in the end, be mixed and matched.

Alternative A envisions, among other things, the aerial tram, the above-ground parking garage and major enhancement to the zoo's main entrance on Connecticut Avenue NW, including enlargement of the visitor center and construction of a plaza.

Alternative B envisions a buslike surface tram operating along the zoo's north road between two new traffic circles at either end of the complex, as well as an underground parking garage at the upper end of the complex.

"Right now," said Buehner, "we're just trying to find out what it is we want to do."