Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Chicago, IL 60614, USA
Beaux-Arts former lion house with a hand-laid tile vault, now wrapped around a modern glass habitat.
This guide to Lincoln Park Zoo centers on the Lion House, finished in 1912 by architect Dwight Perkins, and its hand-laid Guastavino tile vault built with the same technique used to raise the ceilings of Grand Central Terminal. It follows the zoo's dilemma decades later, when landmark protection meant the historic shell could not be cut into even as the lions needed a real modern habitat. Look up at that ceiling as you walk the viewing loop below it, unchanged since 1912.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.