Toyota Elephant Passage

Opened in 2012, the Toyota Elephant Passage is the most ambitious and innovative exhibit ever undertaken at Denver Zoo. This $50 million USD project focuses on Asian elephants and their relationship to the people whom they live beside. The exhibit is LEED Platinum Campus certified and represents the most aggressive green building project ever implemented at a zoological institution.

Extensive site theming is used to express the exhibit’s three zones – wildlife preserve, rural agricultural village, and village center. Elephants, rhinoceros and tapirs rotate through the six habitats over bridges and paths that cross the public’s walkways. Significant water features encourage swimming and wallowing. Visitors take direct action to help with critical conservation issues while at the exhibit and become part of the zoo’s “family” of supporters that continue to track the welfare of these animals.

Services provided include exhibit development, cultural research and theming, overseas artifact and media acquisition, interpretive content and design, interactive media, hands-on exhibits, exhibition design, wayfinding, donor systems, photography/videography/audio recording, and fabrication supervision.