Lincoln Park Zoo’s historic Pepper Family Wildlife Center in Chicago houses lions and big cats, and recently completed a full restoration. The stunning venue is often used for events, and a space that had previously housed very small habitats for animals when the building was first built will now be used for additional exhibit and educational space. This side area also naturally lends itself to catering and other back of house activities.
The Flyhouse team was tasked with adding roman shades to the steel archways that separate the two parts of the building. To achieve separation in a way that adds to the beauty and function of the space, we developed custom shaped roman shades that fit around the existing architectural elements. We crafted these from a lightweight synthetic velour that can withstand heavy use—and be easily cleaned.
The shades are easily raised and lowered by one person to transition the space quickly from its zoo function for the public to its private function for events. As an added benefit, the curtains also reduce reverberation in the room by substantially increasing the acoustically absorptive surfaces in this mostly polished brick and glass building.
As an additional challenge, given its historic status, we were not permitted to drill to, weld on, or modify the building in any way. Our custom designed and engineered system was able to delicately clamp to the existing structure without having any permanent affect on the historic building and could easily be removed in the future without any impact to the building.
All of our steel fabrication is color-matched to blend seamlessly with the custom historic color chosen by the zoo for the space. We were able to complete this system in just two days, without impacting any Zoo operations. That's how we fly!
