St. Louis Zoo, Animal Nutrition Center

Designed to demonstrate the importance of wildlife nutrition, the Saint Louis Zoo’s Orthwein Animal Nutrition Center provides visibility to zoo visitors regarding the process of growing, preparing, and testing food. Taking advantage of the adjacent zooline railroad’s thousands of visitors, the building expands into view with a sloping green roof, accentuating the forced perspective from the train. Since greenfield areas are rare at the zoo, the project was built into the landscape with an extensive green roof ascending from the landscape into the slope of the roof. Storage areas are contained in a large brick volume, with decorative brick soldier coursing replicating the strata of the earth removed for the building.

The first LEED-certified facility constructed at the Zoo, green concepts included high efficiency mechanical systems, low VOC coatings, local and recycled materials specification, decreased storm water runoff, and installation of the largest green roof at the Zoo. With educational facilities in the lower level, the building also houses offices, prep space, cooler/freezer, and dry storage.