San Diego Zoo Rex’s Roar

Coffman’s significant zoological experience includes dozens of projects at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. This particular project involved a sculpture of Rex the lion erected at the entryway of the San Diego Zoo to commemorate the centennial anniversary in 2018.

The 27-foot-long bronze lion seems to defy gravity as it pounces on its front paw with the back of his body in the air. The ten-ton statue’s footing was made possible by anchoring 100,000 pounds of concrete.

Coffman provided the architectural lighting and electrical engineering design to showcase the lion who’s roar inspired the idea of the San Diego Zoo. The lighting consists of two in-grade RGB up lights and two towers with dynamic white LED spotlights on each tower. The in-grade lighting can be programmed and aimed wirelessly allowing the zoo to change the color of the lights for any event or season throughout the year. The fixed pole mounted lighting can also be controlled wirelessly to change from a very cool white to a warm white.