DETROIT — The Polk Penguin Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo will be home to more than 80 penguins of four species — Gentoo, Macaroni, Rockhopper and King — when it opens in April.
The 33,000-square-foot center on a two-acre site just inside the zoo entrance features a chilled 326,000-gallon, 25-foot-deep aquatic zone. Two acrylic underwater tunnels provide guests with views above and below water as the birds dive and soar. It is impossible to see penguins deep diving otherwise, even in the wild.
Inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic expeditions and epic crossings of the Drake Passage, the facility will feature 4-D effects such as polar blasts, rough waves and snow, and physical elements such as ice crevasses.
The building’s exterior evokes a tabular iceberg.
Once the penguins are settled in the new center, renovation will begin on the current Penguinarium to turn it into a bat conservation center.
