New Animal Health Center Plans Unveiled
By Honolulu Zoo Veterinarian, Dr. Ben Okimoto
December 2003

June 2005 Update
New Vet Clinic Dedication Photos

The first major project to benefit from the fundraising partnership between the Honolulu Zoo Society and the City and County of Honolulu is a new Animal Health Clinic. A total of $4 million dollars has been committed for the 2002-2003 fiscal year including $800,000 raised by the Zoo Society's Capital Campaign. The following feature article by Honolulu Zoo Veterinarian, Dr. Ben Okimoto, describes the history of our present facilities and the design vision for this exciting and much needed upgrade!

Dr. Ben Okimoto writes:

Our zoo has never had a facility that was purposely built as an animal hospital. Prior to the current medical facility being available, the zoo veterinarian had to use a cramped room next to our storage warehouse and some medical procedures had to be performed in the open.

The current Honolulu Zoo "Animal Health Center" was opened in 1985, as a conversion of a house that was built in 1953. In fact, in the early 80's Dr. Calvin Lum, the zoo's curator and veterinarian, and his family lived in the same house. The home's car garage was removed in 1989, and a building housing the xray room and post mortem room was built along with outside animal holding pens. Over the years, several internal modifications have been made to maximize the efficient use of our limited facilities. Due to the age of the building's infrastructure, we have had problems with rodent and termite infestations, water pressure and plumbing, and electrical supply. The limited floor area led to cramped office space for staff and restricted holding areas for animals.

For about the last 13 years I have been studying floor plans for existing and new zoo animal hospitals across the mainland. One of the first floor plans that I reviewed and liked was for the Miami Metro Zoo. I still believe that it is one of the most efficient plans drawn, and I have used it as the basis for designing our new zoo hospital. The architectural firm of Yamasato, Fujiwara, and Higa, is drawing up the plans, and we will also be consulting with the firm of Wilson, Darnell and Mann (WDM), of Wichita, Kansas. WDM had designed the zoo hospitals in Wichita and Oklahoma City.

Our new zoo hospital will finally provide a fully functional "Animal Health Center" with facilities for outside and inside animal holding, post mortem, treatment, surgery, x-ray, nursery, Intensive Care Unit, kitchen, separate hospital rooms for mammals, birds and reptiles, a laboratory, and office space that will include research and library/conference rooms. The entire floor base will be slightly elevated to compensate for any flooding from future tsunami or hurricane. Although the complex will be provided with central air conditioning, specific rooms will have more controlled temperature, and the surgery and post mortem rooms will have special exhaust systems. Animals in an outside grass pen can be monitored through viewing panels from within the building. Traffic flow will be controlled so that human disturbance and potential contamination will be restricted to only certain sections of the complex. We are also planning on a separate but adjacent quarantine facility.

The new "Animal Health Center" will be built in the Monsarrat and Paki corner of the zoo. As positioned in the zoo's Master Plan, this location provides separation of sick animals from the rest of the zoo and provides some isolation of injured animals from disturbance from within the zoo. The orientation of rooms within the building and external barriers will reduce disturbance coming from the nearby streets. The total estimated cost of construction for the entire complex and for equipment is around $4 million. The projected construction completion date is about the end of 2003.

Construction of the new Honolulu Zoo Animal Health Center is scheduled for completion in August or September of 2005. This $3.7 million project will provide a professional medical facility, and will be the first purpose built hospital for our zoo. The main building encompasses about 7,000 square feet of floor space and there will be a separate 700 square foot quarantine building. As described previously, this new hospital will provide significant advancements in equipment, capabilities, and quality of medicine offered to our zoo animals. There will be facilities for inside and outside animal holding, treatment, surgery, x-ray, nursery, intensive care, isolation, and post mortem. In addition we will have separate laboratory, conference/library, and animal kitchen facilities. The air handling system will separate human from animal activity areas. Specific rooms, such as the surgery, isolation, and post mortem rooms will have special nonrecirculatory air handling systems.

The cost for new and replacement medical equipment was a significant portion of the total expenditure for this project. New equipment purchases included a completely digital x-ray system, a flexible fiber optic system with video monitor, an ultrasound system, a laser surgery system, a large animal surgery table, a complete blood analyzer system, animal holding cages, and a large animal post mortem table.

The green metal roof of the new hospital can be seen rising above the fence line at the corner of Monsarrat and Paki streets. The ground area surrounding the hospital was large enough that displaced “browse gardens” could be relocated there to allow continued cultivation of edible feedstuffs. It is anticipated that our new zoo animal hospital will meet the medical needs of the zoo for the next 20 to 30 years.