MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM - SHARK MOUNTAIN
FIRM: ehdd
LOCATION: Monterey, California
STATUS: unbuilt, schematic design 2007
POSITION: Project Co-Designer
Based on long-term strategic goals and excitement around new discoveries on local sea mounts the Monterey Bay Aquarium commissioned ehdd to develop multiple approaches to new large-scale wet exhibits. Constrained by physical and regulatory limits, the best option was determined to be a major renovation of the existing Outer Bay Waters (OBW) wing. A series of concepts were created including two versions developed further for additional cost, feasibility, animal husbandry and visitorship analyses.
The portion of the project shown here is a new tank to be located at the entry to the OBW wing in a space spanning over the public access to the waterfront. A hybrid tank with a smaller base and a large overhead portion achieves the diameter necessary for larger sharks and preserves the needed visitor flows around the tank. This leads to a new exhibit model and allows for a load path designed to utilize the existing building structure with localized strengthening.
