The San Antonio Zoo Savanna Expansion will create an immersive environment for guests to experience savanna animals up close while increasing the savanna acreage for the animals themselves. In Phase One the giraffes will get a handsome new large barn with a public savanna walk snaking through it. The barn is predominantly wood to be friendly to curious licking giraffes and to tie into the existing zoo campus material palette. Reclaimed masonry from the former elephant barn will anchor the base of the new giraffe barn, while wood accent panels reference both the native architecture of the reticulated giraffe’s home-range in Africa and also echo the classic South Texas jacal. The building will be topped by a rust colored metal roof that will blend into the existing zoo campus fabric when seen from above, as the savanna is within an historic quarry.
Architecture: Smithdish architecture with Trey Rabke
Animal Care: San Antonio Zoo Animal Care Team
Interior Design: Smithdish architecture with WestEast Design Group
Heavy Timber Design Assist: Timberlyne Frames
Structural/Civil: A-1 Engineering
MEP Engineer: DBR
Landscape Architecture: Terra Design Group
Building Envelope: Acton Partners
Code: FPCC
Archeology: Pape Dawson
Geotech: TTL
Heavy Timber Contractor: Timberlyne Frames
General Contractor: Spawglass