An isolated and steep hillside once home to a small herd of endangered addax and dama gazelle, knuckle-walking anteaters and black vultures has been an active construction zone at the San Antonio Zoo for over three years.
Ever since ground work was completed, crews have been pouring concrete, installing steel beams and building walls, all to create a home for eight Western lowland gorillas headed for the zoo later this year.
Congo Falls, the largest and most costly habitat ever built at the 111-year-old zoo, is more than halfway to the finish line, said Ben Barton, director of capital construction at the zoo. The adjacent Ralston Event Center is 85% complete, he estimated.
Designed by St. Louis-based architect PGAV Destinations, and built by Guido Construction, Congo Falls is planned as a 2-acre exhibit in the Africa section of the zoo.
It is one of a number of major capital projects in the last decade at the nonprofit zoo, including a new entrance featuring a giant gorilla-shaped topiary.
The Report recently toured the dusty Congo Falls site that looms over Naylor Savanna and Big Cat Valley at the zoo, and hugs the limestone walls of a former quarry, for a firsthand look at the transformative project.
Views and viewing
“This is a one-of-a-kind in the world,” Hope Roth, vice president of marketing, sales and communication, said of Congo Falls, and a true testament to the zoo’s mission of conservation and education.
Panoramic views are the first thing a visitor to the event center will notice. With seating for 500 and space for a dance floor and stage, the event center rises high above the gorilla habitat. The zoo’s new event space could soon be the site of weddings, galas and other large events.
Window openings offer event-goers access to an outdoor patio overlooking the planned waterfall, the exhibit below, much of the zooscape — and the San Antonio skyline beyond.
A massive kitchen to support events and serve the zoo is being constructed underneath the event center and a foyer connects the dining area to the zoo’s executive offices, a conference room, bridal room and restrooms.
While the planned vegetation and hundreds of trees have yet to be planted, elements for the gorillas to scramble up and climb and peer out have taken shape, including the 70-foot Mays Family Silverback Peak.
Erected last fall, the towering steel structure serves as a centerpiece of the habitat and as a climbing and viewing apparatus for the gorillas.
Gorilla habitats at some zoos are barren and the animals can’t see beyond the walls and glass, Roth said, which goes against their nature.
“Gorillas naturally love to climb, and they like to look out above the tree canopy,” she said. “Their welfare was very much a part of the design and the why behind this.”
The structure is being designed and built — and tested — for optimal viewing and safety for both the gorillas and zoo visitors.
In addition to working to meet standards set by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other animal welfare organizations, Barton said the zoo recently hired human climbers to try it out.
“They came in on Sunday and they scooted up the wall in eight minutes, and we said, ‘OK, we have work to do, they’re not supposed to be able to get out that easily,'” he said.
To the west of the tower and the Ralston center is another building under construction that will serve as the habitat’s health care center and indoor viewing and enrichment area. It will include a kitchen, zookeeper spaces and quarantine spaces. That section of the habitat will be covered with netting.
Bringing gorillas back
The project is bringing the critically endangered species back to the city for the first time since 1990.
A family of four gorillas, including a silverback male and three females, and four teenage males, have been selected for the zoo by the AZA’s species survival planning group. They will travel from Houston, Dallas and Atlanta to San Antonio in October.
The gorillas’ care will be overseen by Daryl Hoffman, the zoo’s new vice president of animal care.
In the habitat, an elevated pathway will lead visitors to the building and the rest of the exhibit. The idea behind it is to give visitors a 360-degree view of the habitat, Roth said.
“What we’re trying to do is blur those lines,” between human and gorilla, Barton said. “Who’s in whose exhibit? Am I in yours? Or are you in mine?”
For Leslie Lehman, who works as a partnership sales coordinator at the San Antonio Zoo, Congo Falls will strengthen a sense of community, encouraging people to come to the zoo, hitting those nostalgic cords.
“It’s going to, overall, provide more to the city,” she said of the exhibit.
Mason Rodriguez, director of marketing at the San Antonio Zoo, said he is already working to introduce the troop to San Antonio by showcasing individual gorillas through animal trading cards, video and social media. Ajari was the first, last month.
“This is just yet another way that we are making a huge impact on our community,” Rodriguez said.
Adam Malstaff, senior director of facilities and horticulture at the zoo, said Congo Falls is likely the second or third largest gorilla habitat in the nation, which is significant for a landlocked zoo divided into parts by a major thoroughfare.
The site for Congo Falls was previously underutilized and had steep slopes and walkways that made it uninviting to zoo visitors in the past, Malstaff said.
But it’s the perfect topography for gorillas.
