The new design is expected to stay up through the winter until next spring.
The 150-foot water tower at the Detroit Zoo is being repainted, and the new, temporary design — which the zoo is planning to add and have up by late July or early August — is supposed to be „a surprise.“
The zoo said it is not revealing what it looks like until it goes up.
The only clue: The design is aimed celebrating the zoo’s its 95th anniversary in the suburbs.
The zoo also isn’t saying how much the paint job and temporary design — which is expected to be a vinyl wrap, a larger version of what some people cover their cars with — is costing, either. It did, however, offer a brief history and photos through the years of tower, which was built by the City of Royal Oak in 1928.
The 1.5-million-gallon water tower initially provided water pressure to what was then the north Woodward area, and by 1932, the tower identified the city and zoo, with „Royal Oak,“ in large letters, and underneath, „Detroit Zoological Park.“
A failed valve in the water tower rendered it obsolete in in 1984, but instead of tearing it down, the structure was left up to help visitors find the zoo. In the nearly 40 years since, it has become a landmark and kind of a kind of billboard for the zoo.
Opened the same year as the water tower, the zoo was a instantly popular. On Aug. 1, a crowd of 150,000 people flocked to see it, according to the Detroit Historical Society. Visitors paid a nickel to ride Paulina, the elephant, and the lion cubs were the zoo’s most popular animals.
