PJA: Twenty Years of Zoo Design

  As we celebrate twenty years in the Zoo Design business at PJA, one needs to step back for a moment and really think about what that means. While it has been great to work on so many unique and interesting projects, I really think it is about the people we have come in contact continue…

Zoo Design: A Playground in Nature

A Playground in Nature: Longsha Zoological and Botanical Garden in China Authors: Patrick Janikowski, James Brighton, Joyce Lee, Terry O’Connor Summary Most of us went to a zoo at some point in our childhoods. In the earlier days, the animals were often exhibited behind metal bars, in small cages, barren of any furnishings. The exhibits continue…

Zoo Design: Is This Really the New Direction?

During the past few months, I have been seeing more and more references being made to a new type of zoo exhibit. This one consists of a trail made of steel and mesh and raised above the ground and visible to all the guests at some point in their zoo journey. This new “exhibit” has continue…

What Makes for Good Zoo Design?

I’ve just been going over a number of articles on the Internet about people’s perception of what makes for good zoo design. As a zoo designer, I am always trying to understand what the “typical” zoo goer wants to experience during their trip to the zoo. During some of my “free time”, I search blogs, continue…

Earth Day Karaoke

SING FOR THE PLANET WITH MARVIN GAYE Mercy Mercy Me (Ecology) Marvin Gaye Woo ah, mercy mercy me Ah things ain’t what they used to be, no no Where did all the blue skies go? Poison is the wind that blows from the north And south and east Woo mercy mercy me, mercy Ah things continue…

Zoo Design and Guest Viewing Glass

Over the weekend, a video taken at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, hit the internet and is getting a lot of play. It shows a family in a building with glass viewing, watching a troop of gorillas. A gorilla charges the window, jumps, and hits the window with his foot, breaking the glass. As continue…

I want to be a Zoo Designer

Over the years we have received numerous  emails and phone calls asking us what it takes to be a zoo designer. Do you need multiple degrees, architecture, landscape architecture, biology, zoology? What schools offer degrees in design with an emphasis in zoo design? When it was time to hire my first employee for PJA, I continue…

The New Doha Zoo

Pat Janikowski will be traveling to Doha, Qatar at the end of January to take part in the final Design Presentation to the authorities of Qatar. PJA, along with HHCP out of Orlando, Florida, have been working since 2012 on the design for the New Doha Zoo. Construction Documents have been completed and are now continue…

PJA traveling to China

Jim Brighton, Pat Janikowski and Joyce Lee will be traveling to China in early February. PJA is pleased to announce that we have been asked by our long-term client, The Hangzhou Safari Park to begin design on an update of two regions of their existing park. We will be updating the entire primate region as continue…

Welcome to the new PJA Website

PJA would like to welcome you to our new website. Created by PJA and The Design Commission, we feel it captures the true feeling of PJA and the work we do. So have a look and meet our team, check out the projects we have featured, services we provide and much more. We look forward continue…