Zoo at Fort Mac?
BRAC has recommended closing Fort McPherson. That you knew. As one comment here has noted, Her Honor has appointed Felker Ward to examine how the property should be used. What’s news is that the City of Atlanta has already been planning for this and one central vision involves moving the Atlanta Zoo onto that property.
According to folks in the know, this plan has been under examination for some time. There are difficulties and it would take a number of years. First, the base has to close and everything has to be moved out. This is at least a six year process. Even if the Zoo were to start building, it would take close to 5 years to have everything ready and there would be substantial moving costs. These costs are so high that it is unlikely the Zoo could make the move without government support. Right now the Zoo does not receive any general support from the City.
So is the move worth it? Presumably, if you move the Zoo, you move the Cyclorama too. Both could use access to a MARTA station. The Cyclorama deserves to be part of a larger Civil War Museum (in whose aftermath the fort was built) and everyone would like a larger zoo.
Still, the Zoo is pretty snazzy right now. Moving it would be a gamble and it seems to be reasonably self sustaining (though a little more corporate and cultural support would not hurt).
One solution might be to just move the Cyclorama and give that additional space to the Zoo to use as an event facility. The event facilities in the zoo could then be converted to more space. Another use of that space would be to create an air conditioned habitat for bears. We like bears and they deserve to be kept comfortable.
August 25th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
I kind of like having the Cyclorama right across from the zoo and in Grant Park. The whole package has a kind of old-skool Victorian flavor.
August 26th, 2005 at 9:08 am
The Zoo and the Cyclorama should be kept together. Historically they are linked. The Cyclorama was initially a travelling exhibit that was accompanied by a circus. When the Cyclorama was purchased and permanently settled in Atlanta, the circus animals were the beginings of the Atlanta Zoo.
That said, they both would benefit from increased access and space. I would support moving BOTH to the Ft. McPherson site and enhanced with a larger Civil War/Battle of Atlanta Museum.
We’re always so busy rebuilding ourselves in Atlanta. We need to preserve some of our history.
August 26th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
This would be a great match, to have more than just tourist attractions at the Fort Mac site, as it is served by two (count ‘em, TWO!) MARTA stations.
Tourism, retail, office, residential… Live, work, shop, play.
More tourist destinations along MARTA lines: good.
More housing along MARTA lines: good.
More office space along MARTA lines: good.
Retail becomes a natural fit: good.
Now if elephants and tigers can fit on the busses and trains, then transporting the animals to their new home would be a piece of cake.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:19 am
While I will admit that moving the zoo might make sense on a practical level given that the zoo does seem rather “shoe-horned” into its present location, I am not sure that there is any real ground swell of effort to actually move the zoo. Also, the zoo and cyclorama are historically linked as one previous blogger stated previously.
Moving the cyclorama, however, is the stupidest damned idea I have heard in a long time. The cyclorama is in an 84 year old building that has been modernized so that it is, in effect, a new building (seen it lately? check it out). It fits within its locational context (Grant Park contains Atlanta’s last Civil War earthern fort, if the city of Atlanta would bother to maintain it).
As I have said before:Atlanta needs to get away from this ridulous shit of moving, re-naming and tearing down its history. Is it too damn much to ask for this city and its powers-that-be to use a little creativity in that regard?