Amazonia, Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden

Mesker Park Zoo opened in 1928 on Evansville's north-west side. Amazonia, opened to the public on 4 August 2008, is the largest exhibit in its history according to the Evansville Parks Foundation, which puts the cost at 13 million dollars (Wikipedia gives 15 million for the hall and a new entry complex). Five years of planning and construction also covered a new entrance and upgrades to existing facilities; one of the zoo's two lakes was filled in to make room for the hall. More than 150 animals arrived with it, and Wikipedia, citing the local press, counts more than 38,000 visitors in the first month.

From 2010 the annual Orchid Escape show has taken over Amazonia each winter. The 2026 edition ran from 15 February to 14 March. On 9 September 2026 the zoo announced that the building would close on 21 September for a renovation of its boardwalk, meant to make it safer and more accessible, and would stay closed until the work was complete.

The zoo calls the building a 20,000-square-foot "greenhouse"; the Evansville Parks Foundation speaks of a 10,000-square-foot facility, while the OpenStreetMap outline, which tags it as a greenhouse, covers about 1,800 m², close to 19,500 square feet and nearer the zoo's figure. Under a roof 45 feet high, the hall holds a waterfall, a suspension bridge, a visitor boardwalk and a research station fitted out as a classroom.

In the free-licence photograph of October 2008, the roof is made of translucent panels set between white beams, and the side wall of large clear panes with thin white mullions. Structures imitating vegetation stand beside real plants, which the staff trim so as not to block the sunlight. The temperature is held at 75 °F all year, and the exhibit's soils were made with a rotary-kiln lightweight aggregate that retains moisture. The firm Torre Design Consortium lists the project among its works without stating its role.

The zoo names howler monkeys, a tapir and a jaguar among Amazonia's residents. Wikipedia adds Baird's tapir, bats, squirrel monkeys, prehensile-tailed porcupines, Arrau turtles, Cuvier's dwarf caimans and fish from the Amazon basin, as well as more than ten species of free-flying birds in the open spaces. As for plants, tropical trees and palms rise to the roof, and many of the plants are living ones, kept by the zoo's grounds crew.

Every winter since 2010, Orchid Escape has filled the hall with hundreds of orchids brought in from Florida and Hawaii or drawn from the zoo's own collection: moth orchids, oncidiums, phragmipediums and zygopetalums, accompanied by ferns, bromeliads and anthuriums, according to the zoo.

Amazonia stands in the heart of the zoo, at 1545 Mesker Park Drive in Evansville. According to OpenStreetMap the zoo opens every day of the year, but the building has been closed since 21 September 2026 for works: its reopening should be checked before a visit. In normal times it is entered with zoo admission and stays at 75 °F, which makes it a winter refuge, the season of Orchid Escape (mid-February to mid-March in 2026).

The rest of the zoo allows the day to be extended: Penguins of Patagonia, the Discovery Center and its hellbender salamander release programme, Lake Victoria with its paddle boats, and the botanic garden.