Harmony Hill at Denver Zoo builds on the legacy of the historic Bear Mountain habitat—recently celebrating its 100-year milestone—by advancing the conversation from preservation to harmony. While Bear Mountain remains an important part of the zoo’s history as the first naturalistic zoo habitat, Harmony Hill transforms the zoo’s former polar bear habitat into a reimagined grizzly bear experience that reflects modern animal care standards and a contemporary conservation message. At its core, the exhibit tells the story of how bears and humans can live in harmony—both in wild landscapes and within our own communities.

As with all AZA-accredited institutions, the grizzly bears in residence are rescues—typically brought into human care due to conflict situations. Harmony Hill reframes those stories through immersive education, focusing not simply on avoiding conflict, but on cultivating behaviors that foster lasting harmony.

The experience is structured around two contrasting yet connected environments: a “National Park” setting and a suburban “backyard.” Together, they illustrate how bears move between wilderness and human-developed spaces—and how thoughtful behavior can help both species live in harmony.

In the naturalistic zone, guests encounter river features, dense greenery, and multiple viewing areas that evoke a protected park landscape. Lantern-style lighting and concealed loudspeakers reinforce the camping atmosphere with location-specific bird and insect soundscapes. Each loudspeaker in this zone is individually addressed within the Q-SYS platform, allowing time-of-day and habitat-specific audio to shift subtly throughout the experience. Sound levels automatically adjust in response to crowd noise, preserving immersion without overwhelming conversation.

A “selfie station” within the National Park zone reinforces responsible wildlife viewing. Designed to demonstrate safe photography practices—such as remaining on designated paths and maintaining appropriate distance—the feature extends education into social media behavior.

The suburban environment transitions guests into a residential setting, complete with seating and views into a “backyard” filled with enrichment items such as grills, trash cans, and bird feeders. Decorative French doors open to a working wall where keepers can interact with bears on camera, with audio and video reinforced within the space. The living room (referred to as the “den,” both as a nod to a bear’s natural shelter and as a synonym for a family gathering room) creates an intimate setting for demonstrations and discussion. The space is designed to feel residential while functioning as a fully weatherproof, high-performance AV environment—cameras, displays, microphones, and loudspeakers are all rated for outdoor durability while maintaining the aesthetic of an interior gathering space. This space doubles as an event space after hours as well.

From a systems standpoint, Harmony Hill was one of the first attractions to integrate into the zoo’s evolving networked audio infrastructure. The Q-SYS platform enables localized paging within the exhibit as well as parkwide announcements during events or emergencies. Keepers can override environmental audio with local inputs during demonstrations, and staff can tie into campus-wide programming for Zoo Lights and corporate events.

We also developed a custom software integration for the selfie station: when guests tag their Instagram photos with #HarmonyWithBears at the selfie station, their images are dynamically displayed on a digital screen above the fireplace mantle in the living room. This digital extension connects responsible wildlife engagement with participatory storytelling.

In 2022, Harmony Hill expanded to include two rescued leucistic raccoon sisters, further strengthening the exhibit’s broader message of coexistence with native wildlife.

Related Projects

Denver Zoo - Harmony Hill

Client:
Denver Zoo