The Future Explained: Shedd Aquarium’s Experience Evolution
VDT is proud to be the architect for Shedd Aquarium’s historic transformation.
Text provided by the Shedd Aquarium:
Shedd Aquarium’s historic home is evolving to meet the needs of our animals, our community and guests of the future. The six original galleries on Shedd’s main floor opened with the aquarium in 1930. Enhancements to these historic spaces and brand-new, expanded habitats bring aquatic animal biology, behaviors and dazzling biodiversity front and center.
Enhanced Welcome Plaza and Gardens
Shedd’s current Accessible Entrance will be enhanced to create a greater sense of arrival for guests, school buses, and groups as they approach the building. A new entry experience and exterior ticketing pavilion will offer a more seamless, quick and streamlined start to a visit.
Grand Hall
Shedd’s Grand Hall, featuring Georgian marble, limestone and Chicago brick work from its opening in 1930, will be restored and exalted in this space, which will become a gathering space for guests and a place for pop-up animal encounters and learning programs.
New Atrium and Shedd Store
New ticketing and security scanning technology will seamlessly sweep guests quickly into a bright and bold atrium. Once inside, new circulation pathways will create more choice in where to start a journey. Ramping throughout the aquarium will also significantly reduce the number of level changes at Shedd, improving physical mobility for guests.
Wonder of Water
Experience the wonder and diversity of aquatic life through two towering saltwater and freshwater habitats. Guests will walk through the middle, observing vibrant corals living on one side and a lushly planted freshwater fish habitat on the other. New periscopes and towering viewing windows will let guests investigate fish nests, anemones and more.
Amazon Rising Arapaima Habitat
This rendering showcases a newly expanded arapaima habitat in the refreshed Amazon Rising gallery. Guests will be able to come eye-to-eye with these large freshwater fish as they feed and explore, in a habitat that will allow the fish to continue to grow in size. Enhancements made throughout the gallery will highlight and array of astounding adaptations that animals have developed to thrive in a landscape that completely transforms twice a year. Interactive experiences such as feeding programs, global pet trade education and a hands-on interactive where guests can charge their cell phones using the current generated by eels showcases the astounding and rich biodiversity of the Amazon River basin.
Caribbean Tunnel
The completely reimagined Caribbean Reef habitat features guest favorites like the rescued green turtle Nickel alongside blacktip reef sharks, goliath grouper and new spotted eagle rays. Guests will get a diver’s-eye-view of life on the reef in this expansive, 40-foot tunnel.
Changing Oceans
This gallery ventures from the surface of the ocean to the depths of its floor to uncover varied and vibrant biodomes under the waves. As guests traverse through different ocean habitats, they will learn how animals and environments are changing in response to a shifting climate.
Kelp Forest Lower Look
Experience a multi-story recreation of a California kelp forest alive with a variety of schooling fishes, swell sharks, leopard sharks and more. From the lower level, guests can sit and take in the wonder of this important ecosystem.
Kelp Forest Ramp Overlook
Experience a multi-story recreation of a California kelp forest alive with a variety of schooling fishes, swell sharks, leopard sharks and more. New ramping will give guests multiple vantage points for this expansive exhibit.
Changing Oceans Second Look
This gallery ventures from the surface of the ocean to the depths of its floor to uncover varied and vibrant biodomes under the waves. As guests traverse through different ocean habitats, they will learn how animals and environments are changing in response to a shifting climate.
Whalefall
At the bottom of the seafloor, guests will be surrounded by sound, light and touch while uncovering the story of the temporary environment that forms when a whale dies and the new ecosystem it creates for other species like crabs and hagfish.
Caribbean Tunnel
The completely reimagined Caribbean Reef habitat features guest favorites like the rescued green turtle Nickel alongside blacktip reef sharks, goliath grouper and new spotted eagle rays. Guests will get a diver’s-eye-view of life on the reef in this expansive, 40-foot tunnel.
Living Lakes
See how species beneath still waters across the globe hunt, reproduce, forage and support our blue planet. Making up nearly one-fifth of the Earth’s surface, lakes provide a critical ecosystem for both animal and human life. Guests can interact with a living fossil at the sturgeon touch habitat and come eye-to-eye with cichlids, paddlefish and ancient lungfish. The Great Lakes are a critical ecosystem with thousands of species adapted to live in and around them, and the habitats here feature many of the animals found just outside Shedd’s doors in Lake Michigan.
River Wonders
Find out what lives beneath continually moving water systems in Myanmar, Madagascar, India and right here in Shedd’s backyard. Our Illinois streams are alive with a wealth of aquatic animals that support the health of life on land. Guests will be surrounded by the sights, sounds, and sensations of rushing water while learning how Shedd and our partners restore the health of local rivers and the species that rely on them, like Blanding turtles, mudpuppies and wood frogs.
Lakeside Learning Studio
A technologically savvy, flexible launchpad for learning, the Lakeside Learning Studio will bring Shedd’s education spaces up from the basement and into the core of the aquarium experience. This new, central home for learning will be available to all guests and contribute to a wider solution to address disparities in access to nature and educational opportunities – especially for historically disinvested communities on Chicago’s south and west sides.
Animal pop-ins and hands-on science experiments will give Chicago communities the chance to explore hagfish slime or taste sea kelp – making learning a multi-sensory experience. Shedd scientists will stop by or satellite in from the field to talk about the aquarium’s ongoing conservation and research efforts both here and around the world. This new space will also greatly increase Shedd’s capacity for facilitated learning experiences, increasing the number of students Shedd engage from 180,000 to beyond 230,000 annually.
View a flythrough animation of the future Shedd Aquarium: