The traditional zoo concept has struggled to keep pace with animal welfare, resulting in closed and abandoned spaces, sometimes located in prominent urban locations. Re-engaging the local zoo as community anchor for both conservation and education, this plan adapts the deserted Los Angeles Zoo into a haven of habitation for one of our most important resources, the honeybee.

We shift to the forefront of conservation through placemaking; supporting a barrier-free space of symbiosis for the honeybee, scientist, and local community member. As honeybees pollinate flora in the re-established native meadow, scientists manage bee colonies in both natural hive formations and lab environments, progressing a global goal of providing life-saving artificial pollen to colonies-in-need. A new procession from Griffith Park’s extensive trail system to the Nature Walk Pier, coupled with a Learning Center and engagement points along the path, provides community members with firsthand knowledge to enact local change.

Design focuses on the reuse of existing materials. Iron bars that once separated now connect, as the foundation of the Nature Walk Pier and as a floating walkway connecting the containment houses above. Concrete stairs previously used to move animals from enclosure to exhibit now serve as protective “hedgerows” for the apiary. Shotcrete stone walls that once confined now liberate, forming the gabion buttresses that lift honeybee, scientist, and community member alike along a path of observation and education.

By shifting the program from captivity to colony, mutualism is created for the greater good.