CLR Design
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In 2008, CLR participated in an international design competition to envision a new home for elephants at the Zoo Zürich. CLR’s concepts addressed several challenges at the site, including the climate and year-round accommodation for the elephants, as well as activity-based design and a softening of the distinction between indoor and outdoor, between exhibit and nature.
The 37-foot tall statue of Philadelphia founder William Penn, atop City Hall. This photo was a team effort – taken by Dan from Nick’s desk on an iPhone through Gary’s telescope. More than half the office couldn’t make it in because of weather-related transit issues (so we had the peace and quiet to play with the telescope a little!).
The National Elephant Center (TNEC) was a major elephant breeding, training and research center. As an AZA-affiliated institution, the large campus provided a home for elephants from zoos that were unable to maintain the extensive spaces and high cost of evolving standards of responsible pachyderm care. CLR provided the Concept Design, Schematic Design, and similar services pro bono for this project. For a variety of reasons unrelated to design, the Center is no longer open. But the design challenges enabled CLR to coalesce several key ideas in cutting-edge elephant care that were realized in later elephant projects worldwide.
CLR Design is an award-winning architectural and landscape architectural firm focused on designing zoological spaces that inspire, educate, preserve and protect. With a solid theoretical and practical design foundation, and over 30 years of focused experience, we remain at the forefront of key innovations and trends that began with the advent of landscape immersion and now include activity-based design for animals, adventure education, campus ecology, sustainable design and revenue driven entry complexes.