Summer Nights And Cool Awards

Nighttime creatures light up the zoo, the Historical Society renovates and two park museums pick up honors

The Zoo’s annual summer extended hours program, Nighttime Zoo 2001, begins June 23. With the gates open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and visitors permitted to remain on grounds until 10 p.m., zoo-goers can observe the mysterious night life of exotic, nocturnal animals such as bats, wombats and lorises. Special lighting provides nighttime viewing without disturbing the animals. New this year is a macaw presentation in which groups of blue-and-gold, scarlet, green-winged and Buffon’s macaws fly over the Zoo in a trained pattern daily at dusk. The colorful flight demonstration takes off at Elephant Mesa and ends behind the Wegeforth Bowl amphitheater. In addition, the new “Cirikli” performance, nightly at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30, features costumed French technicians on stilts who operate 10-foot mechanical bird puppets with wooden heads, tails, wings and bodies. The two are accompanied by a ground-walking shaman who guides the puppets and spectators through the Cirikli legend. “Close Encounters of the Zoo Kind” returns as Zoo behavioral specialists provide nightly demonstrations of the animals’ search, play and problem-solving activities. Visitors also will find an acrobatic musical production with Olympic-style performers every evening in the Hunte Amphitheater, daytime and evening animal shows, live bands, strolling entertainment, a “Puff the Magic Dragon” marionette show and animal walk-arounds at the Children’s Zoo. Nighttime Zoo continues until Sept. 3. Admission is $18 for adults, $8 for kids ages 3 to 11, free for under 2. For more information on Nighttime Zoo, visit sandiegozoo.org or call (619) 231-1515. *** Douglas Brinkley, an author, history professor, columnist and director of the University of New Orleans’ Eisenhower Center, will speak at the annual meeting of the San Diego Historical Society June 22. Brinkley, 36, has authored 14 historical books on American leaders, including 1998’s “The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House” and 1995’s “The Atlantic Charter” documenting the meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He also has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Foreign Affairs. Brinkley’s recent works such as the “American Heritage History of the United States,” “Rosa Parks” and “Hunter’s Volume” will be available for signing after the meeting and also can be purchased from the Historical Society’s museum store or through sandiegohistory.org. The luncheon takes place at 11:30 a.m. at the U.S. Grant Hotel. The $40 tickets can be purchased by contacting Mark Chavez at (619) 232-6023, Ext. 109, by June 8 or by mailing a check payable to the society to the attention of Mark Chavez, P.O. Box 81825, San Diego, Calif. 92138. *** In additional San Diego Historical Society news, T.B. Pennick and Sons began construction in mid-May on a renovation to the entry of the society’s store and flagship museum. The project expands the 873-square-foot entry by 128 square feet to a new total of 1,001 square feet. Heavy wooden doors will be replaced with floor-to-ceiling glass doors to make the entrance more inviting; 290 square feet of glass is required. The project has an estimated contract cost of $165,000 with completion scheduled for June 28. *** Renovation also has taken place at the San Diego Museum of Art. With Tucker Sadler Noble Castro Architects serving as the designers and Rudolph & Sletton serving as the general contractor, a $2.5 million yearlong renovation and restoration of 18,000 square feet including the entryway rotunda, museum store and executive offices was completed. A new gallery space to display South Indian art from the Binney Collection also was added, and the museum’s climate control system was upgraded. For the design of the cabinetry and millwork in the remodeled museum store, Tucker Sadler Noble Castro Architects received the Award of Excellence from the Woodwork Institute of California. Out of 15 finalists, the San Diego Museum of Art project was one of only three that received top honors during the ceremony. *** New additions and awards are in the pipeline at the San Diego Aerospace Museum as well. Using a $250,000 grant from the San Diego Foundation’s Weingart-Price Fund, the museum this month begins construction on a new 7,000-square-foot library and archives. Designed by architect Milford Wayne Donaldson, the library will store one of the largest aviation and space research reference collections in the world, including 30,000 books, 1,000 blueprints, 2,000 maintenance manuals, 50,000 periodicals, 1.4 million photographs and more than 1,000 films. When finished in fall 2002, the library will be open to the public by appointment only; museum members will be admitted free. Donaldson’s firm also designed the museum’s “Pavilion of Flight” canopy, 22,000-square-foot courtyard and aircraft gallery added in March of 2000. The canopy stands independent of the historic Ford Building housing the museum, built in 1935 for the California Pacific International Exposition. The California Preservation Foundation awarded the Aero-space its Additions to Historic Structures and Contextual In-Fill Projects Design Award for preserving the nationally registered Ford Building. *** The Globe Theatre has reinstated its associate artistic director position by choosing Karen Carpenter to assist artistic director Jack O’Brien. Carpenter will help O’Brien with long-range planning, take on various directing assignments, including “Vita & Virginia” running through July 1, give programming input, interact with production departments on the venue’s 14 annual productions, work with associate director Brendon Fox and advise casting. “For several years we have been looking to fill this essential role on our artistic staff — one that has not been filled since the astonishing tenure of Sheldon Epps,” says O’Brien. “We are delighted Karen has joined the Globe family.” Carpenter taught at the Yale School of Drama for five years. Her directing credits include Harold Pinter’s “Old Times” with Julianne Moore at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, the musical “Water from the Moon” at the Westbeth Theatre in New York, and “Play” by Samuel Beckett and Harry Kondoleon’s “Vampires” at Yale. She also has worked with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival and the La Jolla Playhouse.

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