The Treetop Path, a sprawling elevated walkway that snakes its approach across the Minnesota Zoo, offered a novel problem for the designers behind it. For one factor, it was suspended in mid-air. For an additional, it was 1.25 miles lengthy.
It’s a problem that the general public, not less than, feels the designers met with aplomb. Officers on the suburban Minneapolis zoo credit score the path for serving to set an attendance file over the last fiscal yr, which led to July, an all-time high of 1.5 million visitors, a part of a wave of file zoo attendance final yr. The zoo even created a lower-priced membership for individuals who simply need to stroll the path within the morning; it’s not unusual to see older {couples} strolling within the early hours toting binoculars to spy birds.
The Treetop Path, designed by Snow Kreilich Architects and TEN x TEN panorama architects, soars as much as 32 toes above the zoo, permitting guests to traverse a figure-8 path providing views of tigers, moose, bison and extra. Constructed on an previous railway monitor, the 8-foot path options greater than 22 bump outs to permit crowds to linger. In whole, the undertaking provides 70,000 sq. toes of latest area to the zoo. So far as the architects know, it’s the world’s longest elevated pedestrian loop.
From an deserted railway to a public path
John Frawley, the zoo’s director, was impressed to construct the Treetrop Path after visiting New York Metropolis’s Excessive Line. However the architects say Minneapolis’ path is a very completely different expertise. Natalya Egon, a senior affiliate at Snow Kreilich Architects, explains that as an alternative of bringing a park to the town, just like the Excessive Line, it was extra about bringing folks to the zoo and tree line.
The Treetop Path provides connections to present Minneapolis trails, opened up extra views of a beforehand inaccessible forested space referred to as the Again 40, and created room for extra programming, together with elevated artwork exhibits and yoga lessons. To satisfy these completely different targets, the design was purposely streamlined and unobtrusive.
“The easier the walkway could possibly be, I feel the extra highly effective the experiences,” says design principal Matthew Kreilich.
The $39 million funding to repurpose the previous monorail, which stopped operating in 2013, made sense partly as a result of the assist columns have been so costly to take away and demolish; earlier zoo workers had even run fiber optic strains on the monorail infrastructure, making it that rather more pricey to knock down.
But it surely wasn’t straightforward. The engineers and designers wanted to know the soundness of the previous monorail system, and work out the right way to loft greater than 1,000 tons of structural metal above the park, which took in depth reinforcing and analysis.
“One of the crucial enjoyable issues to determine was simply the expertise of the development,” stated Mary Springer, Snow Kreilich Affiliate Principal. “The zoo wanted to stay operational all through, and there have been another problems. Like, there’s a pregnant tiger over there and it must be quiet.”
To assemble the walkway with out disturbing zoo operations, the contractor rigged a small cart, powered by a lawnmower engine, to behave as a practice, pulling pre-made sections of the path up the rail line and into place. Whereas utilizing prefabricated items was finished out of necessity, the sectionalized strategy truly helped with resiliency, permitting the entire construction the power to increase and contract, vital in a local weather with such chilly winters. The contractors, PCL, truly used ice fishing huts to assist work in damaging 20 diploma climate.
A brand new approach to expertise the zoo
Accessibility additionally factored closely into the design. Quite a lot of stairways and elevators assist completely different units of holiday makers ascend to the treetops, and even the ramps that lead guests to the path are technically sloped walks to make it simpler to make use of.
This year-round walkway represents the primary in a brand new collection of upgrades and initiatives meant to underscore the venue’s place as a novel nature zoo. Plans name for extra climbing trails, and even a glamping platform to permit attendees to remain in a single day in nature.
The brand new walkway additionally helps guests see extra of the zoo’s unique design. Whereas the monorail, which, resulting from its fixed motion and excessive sidewalls, didn’t supply one of the best views whereas it operated, the path lets guests extra totally recognize animals and the panorama at their very own tempo. The displays have been all initially bowl-shaped to attraction to these on the monorail, and the path offers guests overhead views of Turtle Pond, horses galloping beneath the walkway, and even bison.
“It’s a novel factor, like this sort of path doesn’t exist wherever,” stated Egon. “There’s no precedent or instance of a transformed monorail. Doing one thing we’ve by no means finished earlier than, that’s what we love engaged on.”