The Project: Master Plan for the Philadelphia Zoo, Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) with Thinc Design (2018)

For over 155 years, the Philadelphia Zoo – America’s first zoo – has connected people with animals to create meaningful and memorable experiences. However, the Zoo’s evolving urban environment, combined with its increasing need for environmentally and fiscally sustainable facilities demanded a more versatile campus. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Thinc Design teamed up to dream a wholly new approach to the Zoo’s current site. We proposed an expansive vision, which considered forward-looking technological infrastructure, universal accessibility, visitor flow, and planning for day-to-day operations and events. Moreover, the plan that put the resident animals’ welfare and visiting humans’ comfort first. The future zoo will be as dynamic as the living creatures it nurtures—changing with the seasons, shifting across day and night, varying over landscapes.

My Role: Interpretive Planner, Thinc Design 2018

Working in tandem with Thinc’s 3D design team, I drafted the Interpretive Plan for the proposed site, prioritizing themes that would educate and empower visitors, while also building empathy with the resident animals and their wild cousins. I prepared the approach to and materials for ideation workshops with Zoo staff, collaborated closely with BIG’s team of architects, and spoke alongside Bjarke Ingels at high-stakes presentations to the Zoo’s leadership team, board, and donors.