SEATTLE - Woodland Park Zoo has selected KPFF Consulting Engineers and Hewitt Architects (Seattle) to design a 700-stall parking garage, opening in 2008. The design team is a recognized leader in the parking structure design business. They have designed over 11 million square feet of above- and below-grade structured parking with over 34,000 parking spaces.

The design team selection committee included: Woodland Park Zoo executives; Seattle Design Commission; Seattle Parks and Recreation; the zoo’s Neighborhood Liaison Committee; Woodland Park Zoo’s Board of Directors; Woodland Park Zoo’s projects department; and an independent design and construction consultant.

“We received some great proposals, but the KPFF/Hewitt team is really exceptional,” said zoo Project Manager Dan Phillips. “The zoo is excited about working with both the design team and the community to build a parking garage that is aesthetically pleasing, functions efficiently and is maintainable.” The garage design team will work in consultation with the zoo’s horticulture department and award-winning exhibit designers to plan a garage worthy of the zoo’s high design standards.

The proposed parking garage is a major component of the zoo’s planned solution to the current traffic and parking problems caused by insufficient parking on zoo grounds. The parking garage will displace the current employee surface lot and administrative offices in the northwest part of the zoo, providing approximately 700 visitor parking spaces and increasing the zoo total to approximately 1,360. The garage will be built entirely above ground, with one level at grade and three levels above grade.

The zoo is developing a Public Involvement Process (PIP) that will ensure meaningful and productive public participation in the development of the parking garage. Preliminary plans call for a series of workshops and open houses designed to engage the public to provide constructive input to the project, thoroughly examine and test design goals, identify and resolve design conflicts and provide overall design guidance for an exceptional facility. The zoo hopes to hold the first of five proposed public workshop by years end.

For more information about the zoo’s parking garage, visit www.zoo.org.

Accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, award-winning Woodland Park Zoo is famed for pioneering naturalistic exhibits and setting a standard for zoos all over the world. With conservation, education and excellent animal care at the core of the zoo’s mission, the zoo is helping to save endangered species in Washington state and around the world including tree kangaroos, snow leopards, red-crowned cranes, African wild dogs, western pond turtles and Oregon silverspot butterflies. By inspiring visitors and others to care and act, Woodland Park Zoo is making a difference in our planet’s future.