Some of the best local news is the kind that takes two years of construction and a crane to deliver. On 15 October the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo finally put a date on its new primate complex: it opens to the public at noon on Thursday 22 October.
This is the biggest thing the zoo has built. The first phase alone ran to $60 million, which the zoo describes as the largest capital project in its history, and the completed build will cover roughly 140,000 square feet on the footprint of the old RainForest. Hundreds of animals across more than sixty species are moving in.
The orangutans are the headline
Plenty of species are making the move, but the orangutans are what the building was really designed around. They get an expanded habitat with linked indoor and outdoor space, which in practice means the apes decide where they want to be on a given afternoon rather than the weather deciding for them. Clouded leopards, small-clawed otters, capybaras and a long list of monkeys are in there too.
Entry is by timed reservation, and the slots are released the morning of each visit rather than booked weeks out, so this is a turn-up-and-plan-your-day sort of opening. A gorilla habitat is still to come, with the full project scheduled to finish in 2032.
An orangutan also happens to be close to the perfect subject for embroidery. The enormously long arm, the flanged cheeks, the shaggy coat that reads as direction rather than detail — thread does all of that well, and a stamped metal badge does none of it. So this one is stitched: the Embroidered Orangutan Trucker Hat is full-colour embroidered twill, die-cut to the ape's own outline with a merrowed edge following the silhouette, the coat worked in blended tones of rust, auburn and pale gold with the stitch direction following the hair.
Shop the Embroidered Orangutan Trucker Hat →
It comes on the Richardson 112 in five colorways plus a ponytail cap in Dusty Rose, and like everything we make it is cut and finished when you order it.
If you are going
Noon on Thursday 22 October, timed entry, reservations released that morning, up to fifteen people per booking. If you would rather let the crowds thin out first, the orangutans are not going anywhere — and neither is the orangutan hat.
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