Thanks wowman!
Captain Callum's Zoo Builds
- Thread starter Captain Callum
- Start date
Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Asia part 1
The final section of the woodland park zoo features quite a few interesting habitats including one huge rhino habitat which spans about 60 percent of the length of the 2 sections of tropical asia - assam rhino reserve and trail of vines. As mentioned before the banyan wilds is also a part of tropical asia but seperated from the main section, lets have a look at the final part of the zoo which will take 3 posts to discuss.
First lets look at a map overview of tropical asia so we can get an idea of where we are due to pretty thick tree cover to identify a clear layout:
We are going to start from the assam rhino entrance which you will never guess what the main habitat is here. This entrance is just across from the african savanna. A rather simple entrance as usual, like the northwest trail entrance
There is one big difference along this trail unlike the northwest trail - thats right its bamboo. Ample bamboo spread throughout this zone allows us to immersive ourselves into tropical asia as we look at indian rhino, babirusa, cranes, malayan tapir, proboscis monkey (francois langur irl), siamangs and orangutans.
Lets take a look at the first habitat area then, on the right of the path we come to the indian rhino viewpoint #1 first which is a view of the far end of the rhino habitat. You will most likely never see the rhinos here as they dont really travel that far down the habitat. This is like a 10,000m2 habitat for just 2 rhinos which is rather big considering how narrow it is
Interesting fact is that used to be an elephant habitat which explains the sheer size of the habitat. Shame the zoo doesnt have elephants anymore, further reading into it explains several welfare issues and pressure from welfare groups forced the zoo to send the elephants elsewhere (which made the elephants lifes even worse..) Anyways shortly after this first viewpoint, we reach the first view of the babirusa habitat (visayan warty pigs in real life)
Further up the rhino habitat we reach an area where we are likely to see at least one of the rhinos, why? Because the rhinos love the pool of course!
Opposite the above rhino view is the second area to view the babirusa habitat
Wheres the rhino one may ask, well great news another view of the rhino pool comes into view. I guess the rhinos look tiny in this habitat maybe becuase these are elephant barriers that tower over the rhinos
Leaving the main portion of the assam rhino reserve we enter a asian themed plaza - the peacock plaza. Yes i do have peacocks in here somewhere as they love to hide in the bushes
The final section of the woodland park zoo features quite a few interesting habitats including one huge rhino habitat which spans about 60 percent of the length of the 2 sections of tropical asia - assam rhino reserve and trail of vines. As mentioned before the banyan wilds is also a part of tropical asia but seperated from the main section, lets have a look at the final part of the zoo which will take 3 posts to discuss.
First lets look at a map overview of tropical asia so we can get an idea of where we are due to pretty thick tree cover to identify a clear layout:
We are going to start from the assam rhino entrance which you will never guess what the main habitat is here. This entrance is just across from the african savanna. A rather simple entrance as usual, like the northwest trail entrance
There is one big difference along this trail unlike the northwest trail - thats right its bamboo. Ample bamboo spread throughout this zone allows us to immersive ourselves into tropical asia as we look at indian rhino, babirusa, cranes, malayan tapir, proboscis monkey (francois langur irl), siamangs and orangutans.
Lets take a look at the first habitat area then, on the right of the path we come to the indian rhino viewpoint #1 first which is a view of the far end of the rhino habitat. You will most likely never see the rhinos here as they dont really travel that far down the habitat. This is like a 10,000m2 habitat for just 2 rhinos which is rather big considering how narrow it is
Interesting fact is that used to be an elephant habitat which explains the sheer size of the habitat. Shame the zoo doesnt have elephants anymore, further reading into it explains several welfare issues and pressure from welfare groups forced the zoo to send the elephants elsewhere (which made the elephants lifes even worse..) Anyways shortly after this first viewpoint, we reach the first view of the babirusa habitat (visayan warty pigs in real life)
Further up the rhino habitat we reach an area where we are likely to see at least one of the rhinos, why? Because the rhinos love the pool of course!
Opposite the above rhino view is the second area to view the babirusa habitat
Wheres the rhino one may ask, well great news another view of the rhino pool comes into view. I guess the rhinos look tiny in this habitat maybe becuase these are elephant barriers that tower over the rhinos
Leaving the main portion of the assam rhino reserve we enter a asian themed plaza - the peacock plaza. Yes i do have peacocks in here somewhere as they love to hide in the bushes
Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Asia part 2
It isnt just peacocks at the peacock plaza we also have another crane habitat (yes this zoo really loves their cranes). For the tropical theme the habitat holds demoiselle crane but of course red crowned cranes occupy the habitat
Lets leave the plaza behind and look at the second part of the assam rhino reserve. Similar to the babirusa habitat, the malayan tapir have a dirt habitat in between the tropical foliage. There is 3 different views of this habitat - 2 in the first viewing shelter and an open fence barrier on the other side
Past the tapir viewing shelters, we get yet another look at the long indian rhino habitat. Managed to find the other rhino lying down here, its always a challenge to find the rhinos in this big habitat
We get to say goodbye to the rhinos at the final viewing area for the habitat. Its the shelter building for the rhinos with a upclose glass window to possibly see the rhinos sleeping here
With the rhino habitat behind us, lets enter the trail of vines. The trail of vines is of course going to feature the primates of tropical asia, here we have proboscis monkey (francois langur), siamang and orangutans. First up is the proboscis monkey habitat with the trusty bamboo climbing frame
After the proboscis monkey habitat we get a look at the other malayan tapir viewing area
Walking around this area can be noisey, why? Thats the siamangs of course! I managed to find a nice prebuilt frame from the workshop - colored it brown and placed quite a few nice looking trees to make it look semi natural. The habitat itself is exactly like the lemur habitats with a moat seperating the siamangs from the guest path
It isnt just peacocks at the peacock plaza we also have another crane habitat (yes this zoo really loves their cranes). For the tropical theme the habitat holds demoiselle crane but of course red crowned cranes occupy the habitat
Lets leave the plaza behind and look at the second part of the assam rhino reserve. Similar to the babirusa habitat, the malayan tapir have a dirt habitat in between the tropical foliage. There is 3 different views of this habitat - 2 in the first viewing shelter and an open fence barrier on the other side
Past the tapir viewing shelters, we get yet another look at the long indian rhino habitat. Managed to find the other rhino lying down here, its always a challenge to find the rhinos in this big habitat
We get to say goodbye to the rhinos at the final viewing area for the habitat. Its the shelter building for the rhinos with a upclose glass window to possibly see the rhinos sleeping here
With the rhino habitat behind us, lets enter the trail of vines. The trail of vines is of course going to feature the primates of tropical asia, here we have proboscis monkey (francois langur), siamang and orangutans. First up is the proboscis monkey habitat with the trusty bamboo climbing frame
After the proboscis monkey habitat we get a look at the other malayan tapir viewing area
Walking around this area can be noisey, why? Thats the siamangs of course! I managed to find a nice prebuilt frame from the workshop - colored it brown and placed quite a few nice looking trees to make it look semi natural. The habitat itself is exactly like the lemur habitats with a moat seperating the siamangs from the guest path
What I love the most about this zoo is the fact that there are so many trees to cover the areas with shadows. Gives me ideas to update Longview Zoo with some trees
Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Asia part 3
Leaving the siamangs behind we just have one more habitat to cover. The orangutan habitat was rather hard to build due to 2 things - 1 is not enough good sources to accurately build so i had to improvise/get creative in certain areas and 2 is i ran out of room for the full size. Even though my scaling was much better than the oregon zoo, the limitations of the game map did force certain areas to be smaller
Just past the siamang viewpoint we see several areas to see the orangutans at the top of their habitat. This is the worst part of the orangutan for me due to no references for the path layout, i know a python exhibit and several indoor orangutan rooms are featured here but well no room for that sadly
An Interesting view here is the first one with tall rocks on both sides allowing a narrow view into the habitat. We can often see one of the male orangutans climbing the tree here
A pretty basic indoor orangutan room with a climbing frame they never use, i never have success with indoor orangutan frames likely due to the roof height. This is arguably the weakest part of the zoo in terms of actual detail
Next to the indoor room is a nice looking palm thatch shelter area. This covers a second viewing window into the bland indoor room, of course lots of bamboo is present here to continue the tropical asia atmosphere
Now lets have a look at the best part of the orangutan habitat, the outside portion. The outside portion features a large climbing frame hidden in trees to make it seem the orangutans are climbing amongst the forest canopy, the guests get to view the orangutans from a raised boardwalk to make it seem we are up in the trees with them. If only the orangutan climbing behaviour would get reworked, its a shame they spend so much time on the ground
Comparing the two great ape habitats - orangutan and gorillas, we can clearly see i put more effort into the gorilla habitat which is now one of my prized habitats. The orangutan habitat is there i guess. But hey thats tropical asia done and complete , lets exit the zone before that though
Leaving the bamboo forest behind, we exit into the bird of prey show area. Just ahead is the junction for the adaptations building and australasia
Leaving the siamangs behind we just have one more habitat to cover. The orangutan habitat was rather hard to build due to 2 things - 1 is not enough good sources to accurately build so i had to improvise/get creative in certain areas and 2 is i ran out of room for the full size. Even though my scaling was much better than the oregon zoo, the limitations of the game map did force certain areas to be smaller
Just past the siamang viewpoint we see several areas to see the orangutans at the top of their habitat. This is the worst part of the orangutan for me due to no references for the path layout, i know a python exhibit and several indoor orangutan rooms are featured here but well no room for that sadly
An Interesting view here is the first one with tall rocks on both sides allowing a narrow view into the habitat. We can often see one of the male orangutans climbing the tree here
A pretty basic indoor orangutan room with a climbing frame they never use, i never have success with indoor orangutan frames likely due to the roof height. This is arguably the weakest part of the zoo in terms of actual detail
Next to the indoor room is a nice looking palm thatch shelter area. This covers a second viewing window into the bland indoor room, of course lots of bamboo is present here to continue the tropical asia atmosphere
Now lets have a look at the best part of the orangutan habitat, the outside portion. The outside portion features a large climbing frame hidden in trees to make it seem the orangutans are climbing amongst the forest canopy, the guests get to view the orangutans from a raised boardwalk to make it seem we are up in the trees with them. If only the orangutan climbing behaviour would get reworked, its a shame they spend so much time on the ground
Comparing the two great ape habitats - orangutan and gorillas, we can clearly see i put more effort into the gorilla habitat which is now one of my prized habitats. The orangutan habitat is there i guess. But hey thats tropical asia done and complete , lets exit the zone before that though
Leaving the bamboo forest behind, we exit into the bird of prey show area. Just ahead is the junction for the adaptations building and australasia
Woodland Park Zoo: Release
Steam Workshop Link:
steamcommunity.com
Youtube Walking Tour
Source: https://youtu.be/gn6we6vrk5g
Lets wrap up the woodland park zoo then! My most expansive and naturalistic zoo completes my tour of the pacific northwest before moving onto somewhere more.... east.
First lets look at my fantastic map of the complete zoo, the numbers are in ideal walking tour through the zoo. My walking tour took 2 hours to fully complete seeing everyhting the zoo had to offer. The map below for reference is the full length of the ingame map and covers about 80 percent of the entire map, no wonder i was playing at 15 fps - just look at all those trees! The full map was roughly 41,000 highlightable pieces of which i bet half of that is foliage
And some long awaited comparision pictures with the real zoo:
Steam Workshop Link:
Steam Workshop::Woodland Park Zoo
Youtube Walking Tour
Lets wrap up the woodland park zoo then! My most expansive and naturalistic zoo completes my tour of the pacific northwest before moving onto somewhere more.... east.
First lets look at my fantastic map of the complete zoo, the numbers are in ideal walking tour through the zoo. My walking tour took 2 hours to fully complete seeing everyhting the zoo had to offer. The map below for reference is the full length of the ingame map and covers about 80 percent of the entire map, no wonder i was playing at 15 fps - just look at all those trees! The full map was roughly 41,000 highlightable pieces of which i bet half of that is foliage
And some long awaited comparision pictures with the real zoo:
Last edited:
Introducing Lincoln Park Zoo
Welcome everyone to the next installment to my never ending recreation series! While we approach the first dlc of the year, i have finalised the selection for my next zoo which is quite the interesting zoo to build and especially a stark contrast to my last city zoo which was the woodland park zoo. Walking around the woodland park zoo, one wouldnt exactly think this was in a large american city with all the lush scenery.
Lets finally leave the pacific northwest for good with both major zoos represented in the region and head to the bustling city of Chicago! There are 2 impressive zoos located in chicago - the sizeable Brookfield zoo and the much smaller Lincoln park zoo. The lincoln park zoo sits right in the heart of the city with much of the iconic Chicago skyline visible from the zoo (sadly i cant actually recreate that although i could make some photoshopped pics).
Now first thing we see is lots and lots of buildings and also a smallish zoo. Each important building will be custom built to the best of my ability (this isnt gonna be a sallands adventure zoo though
) The zoo itself will be my smallest in terms of zoo size so far at roughly 49 acres / 20 hectares compared to woodland park's 92 acres / 37 hectares. As always parking, staff areas and walkways outside the zoo will be featured in this recreation to bring life to the zoo as a whole. A city zoo needs the exterior life to make it feel like a city zoo otherwise we just have another zoo sitting in some farmland in the middle of nowhere.
Lets take a look at the real zoo then:
First up is the east entrance which can be considered the main entrance, in real life there are no entrance gates to go through because this is free to enter. This is a rather modern entrance which will be a theme running through the zoo - old and new architecture blend together
See that lion statue? Yeah thats the entrance animal. Never would i have thought such a crowd drawing animal would be placed at the main entrance but it must work here! The lion habitat has been very recently renovated which is connected to a historic building. The lion house was built in 1912 and is one of the more iconic buildings of the entire zoo. Both outdoor and indoor viewing areas are possible for guests
If anyone hasnt guessed by now, buildings are the focus of the zoo which is both good and bad. The good part is that it allows me to refine my interior work which i considered the hardest challenge in the game. Making an interior look good while maintaining structural integrity and realistic lighting is so much harder than scaling right or building naturalistic habitats. The bad news is i have to build interior buildings for ALOT of habitats especially when certain buildings dont exactly have many solid references to use
Alright lets have a look at various other parts of the zoo:
Indoor area of the gorilla habitat:
Japanese Macaque Habitat:
Seal Pool
Camel and Zebra Hoofstock yards
Farm in the zoo
Inside the African Journey building - dwarf crocodile habitat
Welcome everyone to the next installment to my never ending recreation series! While we approach the first dlc of the year, i have finalised the selection for my next zoo which is quite the interesting zoo to build and especially a stark contrast to my last city zoo which was the woodland park zoo. Walking around the woodland park zoo, one wouldnt exactly think this was in a large american city with all the lush scenery.
Lets finally leave the pacific northwest for good with both major zoos represented in the region and head to the bustling city of Chicago! There are 2 impressive zoos located in chicago - the sizeable Brookfield zoo and the much smaller Lincoln park zoo. The lincoln park zoo sits right in the heart of the city with much of the iconic Chicago skyline visible from the zoo (sadly i cant actually recreate that although i could make some photoshopped pics).
Now first thing we see is lots and lots of buildings and also a smallish zoo. Each important building will be custom built to the best of my ability (this isnt gonna be a sallands adventure zoo though
) The zoo itself will be my smallest in terms of zoo size so far at roughly 49 acres / 20 hectares compared to woodland park's 92 acres / 37 hectares. As always parking, staff areas and walkways outside the zoo will be featured in this recreation to bring life to the zoo as a whole. A city zoo needs the exterior life to make it feel like a city zoo otherwise we just have another zoo sitting in some farmland in the middle of nowhere.Lets take a look at the real zoo then:
First up is the east entrance which can be considered the main entrance, in real life there are no entrance gates to go through because this is free to enter. This is a rather modern entrance which will be a theme running through the zoo - old and new architecture blend together
See that lion statue? Yeah thats the entrance animal. Never would i have thought such a crowd drawing animal would be placed at the main entrance but it must work here! The lion habitat has been very recently renovated which is connected to a historic building. The lion house was built in 1912 and is one of the more iconic buildings of the entire zoo. Both outdoor and indoor viewing areas are possible for guests
If anyone hasnt guessed by now, buildings are the focus of the zoo which is both good and bad. The good part is that it allows me to refine my interior work which i considered the hardest challenge in the game. Making an interior look good while maintaining structural integrity and realistic lighting is so much harder than scaling right or building naturalistic habitats. The bad news is i have to build interior buildings for ALOT of habitats especially when certain buildings dont exactly have many solid references to use
Alright lets have a look at various other parts of the zoo:
Indoor area of the gorilla habitat:
Japanese Macaque Habitat:
Seal Pool
Camel and Zebra Hoofstock yards
Farm in the zoo
Inside the African Journey building - dwarf crocodile habitat
Can't wait to see what you do with this project. This zoo, along with Brookfield, were my home zoos for like 50 years of my life. Love them both. I have a huge Brookfield recreate project going on right now in the Zoo forums as well. Lincoln Park was always my personal favorite. Being along the lake and easy walking to many restaurants on the city side of the park and small enough that you were not exhausted after spending hours there. The conservatory right next door was an added bonus. One of my close cousins had a long career at this zoo. He moved around from the wolves to the children's zoo and eventually ended up in charge of the large apes. He was instrumental in helping start up the ape population at Disney's Animal Kingdom. He became curator of a huge zoo in Utah before he fell ill and died from cancer. His memorial service was held after hours in the great ape building. Very surreal, but exactly what he would have wanted. Dr. Fisher was the curator of Lincoln Park for many years and IMO really turned that zoo around. The memories of this zoo are really strong. Good luck with this project.
Lincoln Park Zoo: Animals Collection
What did i forget to mention about yesterday? Yeah the animals! I cant introduce a new zoo without even talking about all the fantastic habitats and cute animals inside the zoo. Lets get a zoo map for easy reference for everyone:
So we have a nice narrow zoo which is about the length of the game map, very similar to the woodland park zoo in overall length. The narrow design will allow for easier performance as the zoo will not take up nearly the entire map but rather just under half of it. Lets talk about the animals though:
The zoo features 15 notable habitat areas, starting from the top of the map:
For a mid sized zoo thats one impressive collection , roughly around 52 habitats to complete the zoo. Between the next dlc i plan to change the format and allow us to get familar with the real zoo itself - each habitat area will get its own post allowing everyone to see the standard of the zoo and what to look forward to in the project
What did i forget to mention about yesterday? Yeah the animals! I cant introduce a new zoo without even talking about all the fantastic habitats and cute animals inside the zoo. Lets get a zoo map for easy reference for everyone:
So we have a nice narrow zoo which is about the length of the game map, very similar to the woodland park zoo in overall length. The narrow design will allow for easier performance as the zoo will not take up nearly the entire map but rather just under half of it. Lets talk about the animals though:
The zoo features 15 notable habitat areas, starting from the top of the map:
- Arctic Tundra
- Polar Bear
- Penguin Cove
- African Penguin
- African Journey building
- African Wild Dog
- Red river hog (warthog)
- Diana Monkey (Black and white ruffed lemur)
- African spoonbill, hadada ibis - static aviary
- Dwarf Crocodile (Dwarf Caiman)
- Pygmy Hippo
- Meerkat
- Aardvark
- Giraffe, plains zebra
- Black rhino (white rhino) x 2 habitats
- Klipspringer (likely empty habitat or gazelle if they like the rocks)
- Bird House (All static aviaries with varied collection depending what the workshop has available)
- Tropical rainforest aviary
- Savanna aviary
- Shoreline aviary
- Recovering forest aviary
- Wetland aviary
- Free flight aviary
- Managed Forest aviary
- Forest Floor aviary
- Tropical Highland aviary
- Islands aviary
- Birds of prey (all static aviaries)
- Cinereous Vulture aviary
- Bald eagle aviary
- Snowy owl aviary
- Macaque Forest
- Japanese Macaque
- Seal Pool
- Grey seal
- Pepper Family Wildlife Center
- African Lion
- Snow Leopard
- Canadian Lynx (eurasian lynx)
- Red panda
- Childrens Zoo
- Red Wolf (Gray Wolf)
- River Otter (asian small clawed otter)
- American Beaver
- American Black Bear (Grizzly Bear)
- Various Turtle exhibits
- Primate House
- Black and white colobus (Black and white ruffed lemur)
- White cheeked gibbon (siamang)
- Black Howler (Siamang)
- De Brazza Monkey (red ruffed lemur)
- Crowned Lemur (ring tailed Lemur)
- Several empty habitats like sloth, tamarin and other small monkeys
- Small Mammal and reptile house
- Dwarf Mongoose (meerkat)
- Armadillo
- Asian Small clawed otter
- Spectatled Caiman
- Golden lion tamarin, white faced saki (Capuchin Monkey)
- Red footed tortoise (Aldabra Giant tortoise)
- Fruit bat exhibit
- Various Snake, frog and iguana exhibits
- Regenstein Center for African Apes
- Gorilla x2 habitats
- Chimpanzee
- Swan Pond and waterfowl lagoon
- Chilean Flamingo (Greater flamingo)
- Trumpeter swan and various ducks (all static)
- Camel & Zebra hoofstock yards
- Pere Davids Deer (red deer)
- Bactrian Camel
- Red Kangaroo
- Grevys Zebra (plains zebra)
- Sichuan Takin (Bison? i guess)
- Ostrich
- Chacoan Peccary (Warthogs)
- Farm in the zoo
- Unsure what exactly is here but lets say 3 habitats of domestic animals - goats (alpine ibex), sheep (dall sheep) and llama can be used
For a mid sized zoo thats one impressive collection , roughly around 52 habitats to complete the zoo. Between the next dlc i plan to change the format and allow us to get familar with the real zoo itself - each habitat area will get its own post allowing everyone to see the standard of the zoo and what to look forward to in the project
Lincoln Park Zoo: Real Zoo Spotlight - Entrances
So lets start this new way of introducing the real zoo. Instead of going straight into showing my recreation progress, lets introduce everyone to the real zoo and maybe some of the pictures might serve as inspiration for some. Today lets look at the entrances of the zoo, yes i said entrances as there is not 1, not 2 but 6 entrances! I guess this is the benefit of being a free zoo in Chicago's largest city park with allows zoo guests to enter and exit the zoo at various locations to continue exploring the general city area. Note that the map does not include an entrance at the bridge over the south pond for whatever reason
Main Entrance:
Lets start with the main entrance which is the upper east entrance, the map in the previous post can assist finding the correct entrances. The main entrance is a modern entrance with some lovely architecture that makes it stand out from many zoo entrances, some may find this style rather overused in modern buildings but i quite like it. The building itself functions as a guest info building with the name of the Searle Visitor Center. The large brick chimney behind the visitor center building is the powerhouse to the zoo i believe, the two totally different styles blend together quite nicely.
All the other entrances are pretty much just basic park like gates into the zoo, classic style fence with a welcome to the zoo sign basically. So ill show a google maps pic of each:
Upper west entrance (top of the zoo):
West Entrance (second 'main' entrance directly across from the visitor center):
Entrance near the patio cafe:
South Pond Entrance (Lower left entrance):
Main parking lot entrance (lower right entrance)::
Bonus entrance - Farm in the zoo entrance:
So that actually brings us to a total of 7 entrances for the zoo! Right away there is the issue of tackling the zoo gate issue since i need to add the zoo gates for the guests to function right. I shall work around this issue with maybe just the main east entrance having the gates.
There is also this cool stone arch entrance to the lower part of the south pond connected to the main parking lot, has a statue of a historical figure which can be replaced with an animal statue ingame:
We also cant talk about the entrances without showing the parking of the zoo, suprisingly for a big city park zoo there is also quite the amount of parking but in a unique parking configuration than what we are used to see in zoo parking lots:
So lets start this new way of introducing the real zoo. Instead of going straight into showing my recreation progress, lets introduce everyone to the real zoo and maybe some of the pictures might serve as inspiration for some. Today lets look at the entrances of the zoo, yes i said entrances as there is not 1, not 2 but 6 entrances! I guess this is the benefit of being a free zoo in Chicago's largest city park with allows zoo guests to enter and exit the zoo at various locations to continue exploring the general city area. Note that the map does not include an entrance at the bridge over the south pond for whatever reason
Main Entrance:
Lets start with the main entrance which is the upper east entrance, the map in the previous post can assist finding the correct entrances. The main entrance is a modern entrance with some lovely architecture that makes it stand out from many zoo entrances, some may find this style rather overused in modern buildings but i quite like it. The building itself functions as a guest info building with the name of the Searle Visitor Center. The large brick chimney behind the visitor center building is the powerhouse to the zoo i believe, the two totally different styles blend together quite nicely.
All the other entrances are pretty much just basic park like gates into the zoo, classic style fence with a welcome to the zoo sign basically. So ill show a google maps pic of each:
Upper west entrance (top of the zoo):
West Entrance (second 'main' entrance directly across from the visitor center):
Entrance near the patio cafe:
South Pond Entrance (Lower left entrance):
Main parking lot entrance (lower right entrance)::
Bonus entrance - Farm in the zoo entrance:
So that actually brings us to a total of 7 entrances for the zoo! Right away there is the issue of tackling the zoo gate issue since i need to add the zoo gates for the guests to function right. I shall work around this issue with maybe just the main east entrance having the gates.
There is also this cool stone arch entrance to the lower part of the south pond connected to the main parking lot, has a statue of a historical figure which can be replaced with an animal statue ingame:
We also cant talk about the entrances without showing the parking of the zoo, suprisingly for a big city park zoo there is also quite the amount of parking but in a unique parking configuration than what we are used to see in zoo parking lots:
Is grant park not further south? I thought my information said both were in Lincoln park, I could be wrong here as I'm not too familiar with Chicago's parks
Lincoln Park Zoo: Real Zoo Spotlight - Pepper Family Wildlife Center
One of Lincoln park zoo's iconic sights is the historic lion house. Built in 1912, the lion house underwent an extensive restoration in 2019 to become the pepper family wildlife center. The restoration focused efforts on expanding the lion habitat along with removing several poor quality big cat habitats that were located inside the lion house. Nowadays we have 4 species to see - the african lion, snow leopard, red panda and canadian lynx. The good news is we have no indoor only habitats meaning we can see the animals behave naturally with larger more naturalistic space even within the limitations of a city zoo.
One of the entrances to the lion house, lion habitat is to the left:
We can see the recent restoration of the building actually kept the historical charm with all unique features of the building still present. These are noted as - varied colors of brick, terracotta, clay tile, cast iron and wood. The entrance mosiac alone is an impressive artpiece to the entrance of the building, i will say this will be the first time since playing the game i will be using the classic theme extensively
Indoor view of the lion house:
I see the perfect place to practise interior design, the lion house has some wonderful architecture spread throughout its great hall even with the modern aspects of the new lion habitat and other areas. The roof alone will be quite the challenge matching the terracotta brick pattern. The left side of the above picture is entirely for the lion habitat, the interior of the lion house is for just the lions with lots of unique ways to see them:
Large viewing windows into the lion habitat:
Modern viewing area inside even has skylights which the lions can walk over:
Closer view of these odd shaped viewing areas inside:
Outside the lion house, we get viewing areas to see the lions aswell:
Above view of the lion portion of the lion house:
So we have looked at the entrance habitat , one fantastic entrance habitat at that. The rest of the animals are located outside in their own old style mesh habitats, nothing amazing but nice enough. In total we have 5 habitats although i cant guarantee i will manage to fit in a row considering space requirements and all the annoying planet zoo 'features'. Each habitat consists of faux rocks, a central grassy area, temperate foilage to the sides and a basic wooden climbing platform.
Canada Lynx habitat:
Red Panda habitat:
Snow Leopard habitat:
To my understanding, none of these mesh habitats were improved much in the modern restoration sadly. I feel these are mildly dated although they still work as nice enough habitats. This concludes the tour of the first habitat section of 15! I plan for this spotlight tour to take some time as i work through the eastern entrance - the building is quite complex so far
One of Lincoln park zoo's iconic sights is the historic lion house. Built in 1912, the lion house underwent an extensive restoration in 2019 to become the pepper family wildlife center. The restoration focused efforts on expanding the lion habitat along with removing several poor quality big cat habitats that were located inside the lion house. Nowadays we have 4 species to see - the african lion, snow leopard, red panda and canadian lynx. The good news is we have no indoor only habitats meaning we can see the animals behave naturally with larger more naturalistic space even within the limitations of a city zoo.
One of the entrances to the lion house, lion habitat is to the left:
We can see the recent restoration of the building actually kept the historical charm with all unique features of the building still present. These are noted as - varied colors of brick, terracotta, clay tile, cast iron and wood. The entrance mosiac alone is an impressive artpiece to the entrance of the building, i will say this will be the first time since playing the game i will be using the classic theme extensively
Indoor view of the lion house:
I see the perfect place to practise interior design, the lion house has some wonderful architecture spread throughout its great hall even with the modern aspects of the new lion habitat and other areas. The roof alone will be quite the challenge matching the terracotta brick pattern. The left side of the above picture is entirely for the lion habitat, the interior of the lion house is for just the lions with lots of unique ways to see them:
Large viewing windows into the lion habitat:
Modern viewing area inside even has skylights which the lions can walk over:
Closer view of these odd shaped viewing areas inside:
Outside the lion house, we get viewing areas to see the lions aswell:
Above view of the lion portion of the lion house:
So we have looked at the entrance habitat , one fantastic entrance habitat at that. The rest of the animals are located outside in their own old style mesh habitats, nothing amazing but nice enough. In total we have 5 habitats although i cant guarantee i will manage to fit in a row considering space requirements and all the annoying planet zoo 'features'. Each habitat consists of faux rocks, a central grassy area, temperate foilage to the sides and a basic wooden climbing platform.
Canada Lynx habitat:
Red Panda habitat:
Snow Leopard habitat:
To my understanding, none of these mesh habitats were improved much in the modern restoration sadly. I feel these are mildly dated although they still work as nice enough habitats. This concludes the tour of the first habitat section of 15! I plan for this spotlight tour to take some time as i work through the eastern entrance - the building is quite complex so far
Last edited:
Lincoln Park Zoo: Real Zoo Spotlight- All about birds
Lets continue the tour of the northern section of the zoo and look at 2 bird sections which of course will be static ingame but still a wonderful build to do showing what planet zoo could truly be with birds. Located just north of the lion house, we come across the birds of prey area and then following is the bird house.
Regenstein Birds of Prey:
Enter a semi-naturalistic area showing 3 bird of prey aviaries to start our bird tour. The birds of prey section features a large aviary containing white stork and cinerous vulture, and 2 seperate aviaries for bald eagle and snowy owl. While not exactly much to talk about here considering it is just 3 outdoor aviaries, it can easily be said that the vulture/stork aviary is the highlight.
Vulture/stork large aviary:
Having noticed some clever editing in the first picture, found a much better view of the general aviary feel here:
Bald eagle aviary:
I cant seem to find a good picture of the snowy owl aviary but i assume it is similar to the bald eagle aviary. So lets move on then:
McCormick Bird House:
Like the lion house, the bird house is another historical building. This was built in 1904 (designed by the first zoo director) and renovated in 1991 to bring the bird house up to modern standards. It is noted that the bird house is the oldest building in the zoo still operating , now the bird house is not terribly big with some typical sized aviaries for birds, the house contains ten naturalistic habitats each themed after a real world habitat. The habitats range from wetlands, coastal to savanna plains.
Tropical Rainforest aviary:
Shoreline aviary:
Free flight aviary:
Wetlands Aviary:
Island Aviary:
So that covers the bird area of the northen part of the zoo, i think ill showcase the northern part of the zoo (meaning 3 more posts) for now as good progress has been made on the entrance this week. With the modern and classic themes blending really nicely already, i cant wait to show what the zoo looks like ingame
Lets continue the tour of the northern section of the zoo and look at 2 bird sections which of course will be static ingame but still a wonderful build to do showing what planet zoo could truly be with birds. Located just north of the lion house, we come across the birds of prey area and then following is the bird house.
Regenstein Birds of Prey:
Enter a semi-naturalistic area showing 3 bird of prey aviaries to start our bird tour. The birds of prey section features a large aviary containing white stork and cinerous vulture, and 2 seperate aviaries for bald eagle and snowy owl. While not exactly much to talk about here considering it is just 3 outdoor aviaries, it can easily be said that the vulture/stork aviary is the highlight.
Vulture/stork large aviary:
Having noticed some clever editing in the first picture, found a much better view of the general aviary feel here:
Bald eagle aviary:
I cant seem to find a good picture of the snowy owl aviary but i assume it is similar to the bald eagle aviary. So lets move on then:
McCormick Bird House:
Like the lion house, the bird house is another historical building. This was built in 1904 (designed by the first zoo director) and renovated in 1991 to bring the bird house up to modern standards. It is noted that the bird house is the oldest building in the zoo still operating , now the bird house is not terribly big with some typical sized aviaries for birds, the house contains ten naturalistic habitats each themed after a real world habitat. The habitats range from wetlands, coastal to savanna plains.
Tropical Rainforest aviary:
Shoreline aviary:
Free flight aviary:
Wetlands Aviary:
Island Aviary:
So that covers the bird area of the northen part of the zoo, i think ill showcase the northern part of the zoo (meaning 3 more posts) for now as good progress has been made on the entrance this week. With the modern and classic themes blending really nicely already, i cant wait to show what the zoo looks like ingame
Lincoln park zoo: Real Zoo Spotlight - Bears and penguins
Today is a good day with the tropical pack annoucement! The lineup in the upcoming pack is exciting for this recreation - red river hogs can be placed in the african journey, lar gibbons will have a home in the primate house, and the brown throated sloths will have featured in the primate house and small mammal building. I should mention only the hogs match the exact collection as the zoo keeps hoffmanns two toed sloth and white cheeked gibbon instead.
Penguin Cove
Continuing the bird theme in the northern part of the zoo, we leave the old historical bird house to a modern african penguin habitat which opened in 2016. The penguin cove is themed after a popular south african beach which features a pool with underwater viewing, burrow nests, and lots of rocky outcrops. It isnt exactly an outstanding habitat for the penguins (especially after the fantastic woodland park habitat), but a nice cute habitat for the penguins
Closer view to the entrance of the penguin cove, lots of nice faux rocks in this area
View of the penguin pool with underwater viewing
Not sure exactly what view this is, reflective glass is confusing. Anyways the keeper talk area is to the right with the rock bench
View of the pool and rocky outcrop background, mesh roof to protect the penguins i assume
Arctic Tundra
Basically at the top of the zoo now with a nice but maybe a rather small polar bear habitat which is split into 2 yards. Even the oregon zoo polar bear habitat which is pretty big for city zoo standards, barely met the space requirements but glad we are in sandbox for this! Like the penguin cove, the arctic tundra is an average sized habitat with nice landscaping and features lots of faux rocks to bring the habitats to life. Although it does still have the feel of an bear grotto.
the main source for images does have some unnatural colors for some reason, anyways:
Pool for the bears with underwater viewing
Large outdoor habitat for the polar bears, varied levels of terrain adds much needed depth to a bear habitat
Enter a cave to view the polar bears in one section
Large training wall for the bears to interact with enrichment
Today is a good day with the tropical pack annoucement! The lineup in the upcoming pack is exciting for this recreation - red river hogs can be placed in the african journey, lar gibbons will have a home in the primate house, and the brown throated sloths will have featured in the primate house and small mammal building. I should mention only the hogs match the exact collection as the zoo keeps hoffmanns two toed sloth and white cheeked gibbon instead.
Penguin Cove
Continuing the bird theme in the northern part of the zoo, we leave the old historical bird house to a modern african penguin habitat which opened in 2016. The penguin cove is themed after a popular south african beach which features a pool with underwater viewing, burrow nests, and lots of rocky outcrops. It isnt exactly an outstanding habitat for the penguins (especially after the fantastic woodland park habitat), but a nice cute habitat for the penguins
Closer view to the entrance of the penguin cove, lots of nice faux rocks in this area
View of the penguin pool with underwater viewing
Not sure exactly what view this is, reflective glass is confusing. Anyways the keeper talk area is to the right with the rock bench
View of the pool and rocky outcrop background, mesh roof to protect the penguins i assume
Arctic Tundra
Basically at the top of the zoo now with a nice but maybe a rather small polar bear habitat which is split into 2 yards. Even the oregon zoo polar bear habitat which is pretty big for city zoo standards, barely met the space requirements but glad we are in sandbox for this! Like the penguin cove, the arctic tundra is an average sized habitat with nice landscaping and features lots of faux rocks to bring the habitats to life. Although it does still have the feel of an bear grotto.
the main source for images does have some unnatural colors for some reason, anyways:
Pool for the bears with underwater viewing
Large outdoor habitat for the polar bears, varied levels of terrain adds much needed depth to a bear habitat
Enter a cave to view the polar bears in one section
Large training wall for the bears to interact with enrichment
Lincoln Park Zoo: Powerhouse
Lets see some actual progress with the zoo! We have talked about the real zoo enough for now but the recreation now has something worth showing. Today lets look at the powerhouse which was briefly mentioned in the east entrance post.
Bricks , brick and more brick! Pretty much the entire powerhouse is constructed with brick walls and various styles of roofing for ventilation i guess. Im not too familar with old style industrial buildings but im sure its ventilation of some sort. Obviously the most impressive part of the powerhouse is the 30 metre tall chimney which i think its a little too bulky compared to its real life counterpart but still looks the part , it took nearly 3 hours to build the chimney once i realised the real one is slimmer
Explore camera perspective of the height of the chimney:
Powerhouse seen from the parking lot, very much an entrance scenery piece
Again from the parking lot but further along, got to love the diverse car selection in the planco universe
View of the front staff parking area and the loading bay inside the powerhouse
Near the guest entrance is the staff road entrance and some more staff parking. This time we have some custom parking signs
Between the powerhouse and the east entrance there is a nice style in the brick here. More random staff pieces are added for realism like boxes on pallets, assorted water supplies for staff and the trusty yellow skip full of pallets
Up on top of the roof of the powerhouse, we can see large windows in the central portion of the building. As mentioned lots of roof pieces for ventilation
And a final birds eye view of the powerhouse, this is pretty much the view from google maps. The long flat edge on the top of the powerhouse is going to be connected to the bird house when that eventually gets built
Lets see some actual progress with the zoo! We have talked about the real zoo enough for now but the recreation now has something worth showing. Today lets look at the powerhouse which was briefly mentioned in the east entrance post.
Bricks , brick and more brick! Pretty much the entire powerhouse is constructed with brick walls and various styles of roofing for ventilation i guess. Im not too familar with old style industrial buildings but im sure its ventilation of some sort. Obviously the most impressive part of the powerhouse is the 30 metre tall chimney which i think its a little too bulky compared to its real life counterpart but still looks the part , it took nearly 3 hours to build the chimney once i realised the real one is slimmer
Explore camera perspective of the height of the chimney:
Powerhouse seen from the parking lot, very much an entrance scenery piece
Again from the parking lot but further along, got to love the diverse car selection in the planco universe
View of the front staff parking area and the loading bay inside the powerhouse
Near the guest entrance is the staff road entrance and some more staff parking. This time we have some custom parking signs
Between the powerhouse and the east entrance there is a nice style in the brick here. More random staff pieces are added for realism like boxes on pallets, assorted water supplies for staff and the trusty yellow skip full of pallets
Up on top of the roof of the powerhouse, we can see large windows in the central portion of the building. As mentioned lots of roof pieces for ventilation
And a final birds eye view of the powerhouse, this is pretty much the view from google maps. The long flat edge on the top of the powerhouse is going to be connected to the bird house when that eventually gets built
Last edited:
Looking incredible so far, I aspire to build with this level of realism, I know it's a recreation but still, very inspiring.