TESSERE is proud to celebrate the recognition of the Virginia R. Bartak Red Panda Passage at Zoo Boise as the recipient of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) 2026 Exhibit Award, earning Top Honors in the category of Operating Budget Under $12 Million and Project Budget Under $10 Million.
The award recognizes a project shaped through close collaboration among Zoo Boise, the City of Boise, Friends of Zoo Boise, and TESSERE to bring a key component of the Zoo’s long-term master plan to life.
Bringing the Master Plan to Life
Following the development of Zoo Boise’s first comprehensive master plan, TESSERE’s partnership with the Zoo continued into implementation, helping bring the plan’s earliest priorities to life. Red Panda Passage replaced an existing red panda exhibit, creating an entirely new environment designed around animal wellbeing, behavioral choice, and immersive guest engagement.
Red Panda Passage: Designed Around Animal Choice
Opened in 2025, Red Panda Passage was inspired by the forested habitats of Asia and was carefully designed to support the unique behavioral needs of red pandas at every stage of life.
This project features three interconnected outdoor habitats, an open-air covered dayroom, and overhead pathways that allow animals to move freely throughout the exhibit. Purposeful verticality, natural substrates, live planting, and enclosed habitat spaces encourage climbing, exploration, rest, and social interaction while providing year-round comfort and operational flexibility.
Designed in close collaboration with Zoo Boise’s animal care team, the habitat enables the Zoo to care for multiple red panda family groups simultaneously while providing greater opportunities for movement, exploration, and behavioral choice. Behind the scenes, holding and care spaces were intentionally crafted to support staff flexibility and efficient daily operations, allowing caregivers to manage animals across multiple life stages while maintaining exceptional standards of care. The result is a habitat that advances animal wellbeing, operational excellence, and species sustainability while supporting the Zoo’s broader conservation mission.
Measurable Impact on Animals and Guests
Red Panda Passage has demonstrated the value of designing around animal choice, movement, and wellbeing.
An independent evaluation by AWARE Institute found that red pandas are exhibiting substantially more active behaviors compared to the previous habitat. Guests report observing increased climbing, walking, feeding, play, and social interaction, while natural sleeping patterns remained consistent. Together, these findings suggest that the habitat’s interconnected yards, overhead pathways, and enriched vertical environment are supporting greater opportunities for movement, exploration, and species-typical behavior throughout the day.
Guests also perceive the new habitat as providing stronger welfare support. They observe more opportunities for exploration, choice, play, privacy, and safety, reflecting many of the animal-centered design principles that shaped the project from the earliest stages of design.
Those benefits extend to the guest experience. Guests spend significantly more time at the habitat, report stronger connections with the animals they observed, and leave with a greater understanding of red panda conservation. Guests are also more likely to identify actions they can take to support wildlife, demonstrating the habitat’s ability to translate memorable animal encounters into conservation awareness.
Together, these outcomes reflect the project’s central goal: creating an environment that prioritizes animal wellbeing while fostering meaningful connections between people and wildlife.
A Shared Achievement
The AZA Exhibit Award reflects the collective efforts of Zoo Boise leadership, animal care professionals, donors, community supporters, and the project team that helped bring the vision to life. TESSERE partnered closely with Erstad Architects, Musgrove Engineering, MKEC Engineering, and CM Company to deliver a habitat that advances animal wellbeing, operational excellence, and guest engagement.
TESSERE is honored to have partnered with Zoo Boise to bring Red Panda Passage to life and congratulates the entire team on this national recognition.
The project’s success shows what’s possible when animal wellbeing, conservation impact, operational excellence, and guest experience are considered together from the start. Red Panda Passage is more than a new habitat. It is an early realization of Zoo Boise’s vision for the future, and a reminder of the powerful role thoughtful design can play in advancing both animal care and conservation.
Discover more about this project here!
