In November 2021 the newly-rebuilt Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo was opened after four years of construction and expansion to better serve visitors. The new 15,200 square foot main building with its gabled roof echoes the surrounding neighborhood with a modern interpretation of the local historic, Birge Clark-designed Lucie Stern Theater.

Large windows directly link the zoo with the museum building, with some exhibits extending from the zoo into the museum. Because the zoo is designed as a large aviary, architects called for bird-friendly glazing on the main building.

In 2015, the city of Palo Alto, California, adopted a mandatory bird-friendly building standard applied during the permitting of new commercial buildings.  The condition applies to new buildings that are within an urban bird refuge or that are within 300 feet of a refuge and have a clear line of sight to it.  More than 90 percent of the glass in the first 60 feet must be bird friendly.

U.S. Glass, Inc. selected the highly-transparent GlasPro Bird Safe Ultraviolet Reflective glass for the main building. GlasPro Bird Safe glass is designed to protect birds from colliding with windows and railings, and is highly rated by the American Bird Conservancy.  Our UV glass is visible to birds but highly-transparent to the human eye.