Milwaukee County Zoo Takes a Shine to Kalwall
The deputy director of the Milwaukee County Zoo, Dr. Bruce Beeler, was concerned because the decades-old, stone and pre-cast concrete Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country exhibit wasn't providing the health-giving effects of daylighting. Studies show that daylight positively affects the reproductive cycles of animals and is essential for the production of vitamin D. A natural light cycle and a feeling of openness are necessary to create a healthy indoor environment for the animals.
The zoo also faced another challenge: how to let the sun in and still meet the state of Wisconsin's strict ComChek energy conservation codes for new construction and renovations. “One unintended effect of the mandate is that the healthy effects of daylight on mammals, including humans, might be compromised for the sake of energy efficiency,” says Dale Nielsen of Nielsen Building Systems in Racine, Wisconsin, a long-time distributor of Kalwall Corporation translucent building systems. “Many large-scale daylighting systems inefficiently transmit energy from heating and cooling indoor spaces to the exterior environment. And the benefits of daylight are overpowered by poor energy performance.”
Fortunately,
Nielsen also had the solution for Todd Johnson, project architect
from Zimmerman Design Group: replace the roof with a revolutionary
new form of translucent skylight manufactured by Kalwall Corporation
and strategic partner Structures Unlimited, Inc. “Since we couldn't
add insulation to the stone and concrete walls, this project
would not have met the building envelope requirements for energy
efficiency without Kalwall+ Nanogel¨,” says Johnson.
Kalwall+ Nanogel delivers an astounding U = .05 and an
NFRC system U = .11.
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Today, almost
half of the Milwaukee County Zoo's feline exhibit roof area
delivers balanced, healthy daylighting via the 34 x 34-foot
ridge-configuration Kalwall skylight, directly over the lion's
den, and the second, shed-style from Structures Unlimited, Inc.
And because the zoo also needed to daylight a separate cheetah
cage, a 10-foot diameter, Kalwall Geo-Roofª, infilled with Kalwall's
traditional, translucent insulation, was added. Though the Geo-Roof
is a non-Nanogel product, it delivers the impressive U-values
and light transmission rates for which Kalwall is famous.
In
addition to the improved atmosphere for the big cats, expectations
are high for significant heating and cooling savings. One early
test recorded an outside, wintertime face sheet temperature
of 34 degrees F while the inside sheet was a toasty 81 F, a
testament to the near-miraculous insulating properties of Kalwall+
Nanogel. With the success of the expanded and improved exhibit
area, the Milwaukee County Zoo is inspired to move more residents
into the feline house and even breed species such as lions and
Siberian tigers.
From the Smithsonian's world-renowned Amazonia Exhibit at Washington, DC's National Zoo, to the famous Lied Jungle at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, to the Orinoco rainforest recreation at the Dallas World Aquarium, and now the Milwaukee County Zoo, Kalwall has long been the preferred daylighting system.
Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country
Architect:
Zimmerman Design Group
Total Panel Area: 9,000 square feet
NFRC System U-Value: .11
Kalwall
Panel Specifications:
Light Transmission: 12%
Panel U-Value: .05
Shading Coefficient: .10
Panel Color: Crystal
Kalwall
Geo Roof Specifications:
Diameter: 10 feet
Light Transmission: 30%
Panel U-Value: .23
Shading Coefficient: .27
Panel Color: Crystal
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation 603-627-3861 (800-258-9777 N. America)
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