The coyote stretches out, lying contentedly on the roof of its shelter, a sort of coyote condo nestled within the Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden, presented by KeyBank. The coyote found the perfect spot to sunbathe on this chilly morning and is relaxed and unwary. Several other coyotes are resting nearby, watching, but hardly concerned as visitors to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History observe them.
That’s the way it should be. Harvey Webster, chief wildlife officer and museum ambassador, says most of the animals in the new wildlife center have been obtained through rehabilitation centers, often as orphaned or injured animals that could not be returned to the wild. The museum has a responsibility to the animals to provide a safe, healthy, nonstressful, but challenging and permanent home, Webster says.
“There is 7,000 square feet of real estate here and almost three stories of extraordinary vertical space that visitors on elevated walkways and animals on overhead trailways use. That makes it an extremely immersive experience for you, and also a marvelously enriching experience for the animals,” explains Webster. “Animals can go from being observed below you to being observers above you. We provide them a life that prevents boredom and allows them to present natural behaviors.”
Fox, river otters, bobcats, porcupine, raptors and songbirds (all native to Ohio) benefit from the care provided by the museum’s Wildlife Resources Division in their new home, part of the museum’s transformation, which physically began in 2015. These days, the museum’s Centennial Transformation Project is on pause while museum officials and stakeholders are “recalibrating” the next phases and basking in the success of the completed first phase in 2016.
The centennial project reinvents the museum’s campus for its 100th anniversary in 2020. (The museum was founded in 1920 on Public Square and moved to its present location in 1958.) The campaign goal is $150 million for expansion and renovation. To date, more than $80 million has been secured.
In addition to the Wildlife Center and Woods Garden, Phase I includes the creation of a 300-space parking garage and the Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears Garden, which serves both as an inviting entrance to the museum and an introduction to University Circle. The 32-ton, terra cotta sculptures of a mother mammoth and her calf, plus a mastodon, are the focal points of a 32-foot-high concrete and stone wall in the garden at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and East 105th Street. Essentially at the back of the museum, the garden overlooks important routes directly leading to the Circle.
The sculptures, created by Cleveland artist and iconic industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, were displayed at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo until 2008 and are on long-term loan to the museum.
The bioswale garden surrounding the wall will help prevent storm runoff from the new parking garage and future development on the museum campus. Its importance to help prevent flooding with bioretention and infiltration was recognized by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which helped fund the native-landscaped Sears Garden.
The distinct lines between the transformation’s second and third phases have blurred a bit as tweaks in construction and financial commitments were realized. (Members of the project team include Fentress Architects, Thinc Design and Reich + Petch, plus Cleveland firms Osborn Engineering, Panzica/Gilbane and Project Management Consultants.)
But the major established plans are expected to bring a new integration of galleries, more than 5 million artifacts and specimens in the permanent collection, labs, classrooms and research facilities. The improvements will allow a more involved visitor experience and a more conducive atmosphere for staff, researchers and visitors.
“Our collection, whether it be pickled frogs, stuffed mice or preserved plants, is more than just a depository,” says Webster. “It is a library of diversity, culture and evolution that helps answer questions now and in the future.”
Harvey sees the relevance of natural history museums as being more vital than ever as humans lose their connections with the natural world.
“We are not apart from nature. We are nature,” insists Webster. “We are tied to every living thing on the planet. Our destiny depends on healthy ecosystems that are biodiverse. Our challenges at the museum are to explain how biodiversity came about and why it is essential to our health. We need to show how we can live sustainably while having the lifestyles we want. And we want visitors to have fun while learning.”
Mergers with HealthSpace Cleveland in 2007 and Eco-City Cleveland in 2008 gave CMNH new tools to fulfill those goals. You can’t be a healthy individual in an unhealthy environment, points out Webster. And the museum has done more than just verbally tout green living and sustainability.
For example, the ramps in the new mammal enclosures that lead to trailways in the Wildlife Center are made from wood from a lightning-damaged white oak that was on site. The decking on most of the elevated walkways is milled from black locust trees removed from the parking garage site. In addition, shelters in the mammal enclosures are sided in cedar salvaged from the stockade fencing around the former Perkins Wildlife Center.
In addition, more than 200 American chestnut saplings will be planted at the center, representing a native species that has been long gone from University Circle. Many of the native Ohio wildflowers in the old garden that were displaced during recent construction were temporarily adopted by Green Guardian regional volunteers and cared for in their personal gardens. The plants have been returned to grow in their new protected location, Webster says.
“We want to be a trailhead for science and exploration,” he says. “We want people to realize that this voyage of ours just doesn’t occur in the museum, but is one step out your back door, in your yard, neighborhood or park.
“And we believe that the museum can also help build a science workforce. STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is a widely touted educational force these days. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is committed to science education, and our transformation will make it a world-class museum.”