The Queens Zoo Education Center expands and modernizes the educational facilities in the Zoo’s domestic animal area. A new classroom building replaces the existing one-story North Barn, supporting the Zoo's growing educational and community programs. The South Barn is renovated and expanded with a new second floor to improve spaces for staff, visitors, and animal care, with the existing concrete block walls and timber framing retained to limit waste. Both barns will be clad in durable, red fiber-cement siding paired with dark bronze and wood details, preserving the existing barnyard character. Interiors will receive new finishes, modern furnishings, upgraded building systems, and state-of-the-art integrated AV/IT systems.

The new North Barn serves as a flexible hub for learning and gathering. Two classrooms, each with independent restrooms and access to a shared kitchenette, are separated by a moveable partition, allowing the building to function as two autonomous classrooms or open into a single large event space. A teaching porch extends programming outdoors, and new skylights draw daylight deep into a building previously constrained by small windows.

The South Barn is carefully reorganized to improve how visitors, staff, and animals move through and between its spaces. The original classroom and restroom positions are swapped to align the classroom with the building's approach path, a simple move improving orientation. Restrooms are replaced with a gender-neutral, ADA-compliant facility offering more stalls and a more inclusive environment.

The ground floor supports animal care and keeper functions, while the addition of shed dormers enlarges the second floor to accommodate staff communal areas, open and enclosed offices, and amenities including a kitchenette and single-user restroom. The attached silo will be converted into a special staff lounge on its upper level and the Zoo’s first public lactation room on the ground floor. A new vestibule at the rear will provide access to new stairs and an LU/LA lift to the second floor.

The project is targeting LEED Gold certification under NYC Local Law 86 through the reuse of existing structures, responsibly sourced regional materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures, energy-efficient systems, and rooftop photovoltaic arrays.

Client: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Agency: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Program: educational.
Size: 1,300 SF (North Barn), 3,000 SF (South Barn).
Team: Structural Engineering: TYLin. Mechanical Engineering: Loring Consulting Engineers. Civil Engineering: Leonard J. Strandberg and Associates. Energy: Steven Winter Associates. AV/IT & Acoustics: Trinity Consultants.