Last week when I was in Denver to do some training, I had an unexpected free day.  I had my son (21) with me, who has suddenly taken an interest in the door and hardware industry, and we went to the Denver Zoo.  While we were there I realized that a zoo is one of the few types of projects that I have never written a hardware specification for.  That’s kind of a shame because there are some cool applications on a zoo that you wouldn’t run into in any other type of building.

Here are a few that I noticed during our visit…

This gate serves a covered pool where visitors can pet and/or feed the rays.  I’m guessing there have been problems with people thinking that they couldn’t exit through the gate, so the “instructional signage” was modified.

The giraffes had very specialized doors to accommodate their height.  I’d like to know more about the one with the rails at the top and the chain across the top panel.

This area was constructed to look like stone, including the panel on the door.  I would have painted the door a coordinating color, but with regard to codes, it’s ok to disguise the door this way because the “stone” was on the access side of the door leading to an employee area.  This wouldn’t be allowed if it was the egress side of a door in the path of egress.

The next one is going to take some explaining.  It’s the tiger enclosure – a space shared by two tigers who apparently don’t come into direct contact with each other.  The tigers can individually access the “bridge” over the entrance to the viewing area, but only one side can be open at any given time.

In these photos you can see that the tiger door on the left is closed (look up) and the one on the right is open.

It looks like the doors are controlled electrically, but access to the control panel is limited by padlocks.  In order to open the box, employees with the “blue” and “green” keys must remove those padlocks to allow access to the key cylinder on the primary padlock.

Even my son (a total rookie!) knew what was wrong with the next openings…I swear he has absorbed a lot of door-related info over the years.  If you’re new here, the touchpad of the panic hardware is supposed to measure at least half the width of the door.

Doors serving areas housing primates have special requirements due to the strength and dexterity of the animals.  I’m curious about the tubes attached to the opposite side of this door in the orangutan enclosure.  Any ideas?

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