A must-visit attraction for everyone who plans a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo is the “Peoples Gas Education Pavilion” or the “Honeycomb” (stated by website “Explorest”). It is designed by the renowned Chicago Architectural Firm Studio Gang led by Jeanne Gang. It was completed in the year 2010 and is located towards the East Side of the South Pond in the Zoo near the Ulysses S. Grant memorial.
The Bridge over the South Pond and the South Gate of the zoo are some of the other main benchmarks that are in the proximity to the pavilion. The Pavilion is chalked off and built in such a way that it blends in completely with the boardwalks and pathways that run all inside the zoo amalgamating itself with the rest of the zoo in a serene way.
The structure even tends to give a new picturesque frame to the skyline of Chicago. The use of materials and the overall covering gives a sense that it has long been present in that micro ecosystem and is a part of that urban landscape from time immemorial. It tends to form a partially covered shelter for people to congregate and interact in an open-air setting and bounds them to grab some interesting pictures within the space and the overall skyline of Chicago as the whole backdrop.
The firm has very well bio-mimicked the shell of a tortoise, which is the main concept and the structural frame behind the form of the pavilion. The prefabricated glue-laminated timber – “ribs” as they are called technically – and the fiberglass pods are the main materials used to build the pavilion. The combination of the wavy timber members which become the reason in the formation of the patterns which get the fiberglass domes or the pods helps in the penetration of ambient diffused light to gush into the pavilion. The shape of the pods also leads to a dramatic play of light throughout the day that is not only great to watch and experience but also worth to capture.
The pavilion has thus become a place of attraction for people of all ages. Tourists and residents alike must keep the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Honeycomb on their list of locales to visit in Chicago, IL.