Columbus Zoo: East Africa Plains Play Area

Columbus, Ohio

ROLE: landscape architecture

SCOPE OF WORK: concept design for interpretive children's play area

CONSULTANT TEAM: Pat Janikowski Associates (architects)

CLIENT: Columbus Zoo

The Columbus Zoo's East Africa Plains exhibit will be the home for more than 30 species that cover the ecological spectrum, including lions, elephants, antelopes, hunting dogs, meerkats and dung beetles. As part of the 50-acre savanna and gallery forest environment, Johnson|Southerland (as MEJLA) developed a concept plan for an interpretive play area. Kids will be able to “get the wiggles out” while exploring a kid's version of the East Africa plains environment. They can beat on drums and play with cooking implements in the miniature village. In a nearby water hole/ wading pool, life size bronze hippos snort spray. Animal footprints in the mud and real fish in child-height aquariums will complete the water hole. The upper play area plays with scale -- kids can climb into giant weaverbird nests and crawl through a naked mole-rate tunnel. A fun element will be the giant dung balls (scaled as if a child were a dung beetle on the African Plains) which kids can push through an obstacle course of life-sized termite mounds and rough terrain.