The long awaited opening of The Kay McFarland Japanese Water Garden at the Topeka Zoo has arrived! The official opening ceremony was held on August 27th, 2020.  What was once a parking lot and an empty field is now a gorgeous space dedicated to former Chief Justice Kay McFarland's and her dream of a renowned Japanese garden in Topeka, Kansas.

We were honored to be part of this massive project by building all of the water features in the garden. We also provided water plants (along with Water's Edge & the Water Garden Society) and with the help of amazing volunteers installed all the water plants within the garden. Many of the plants you will see in the garden today were transplanted from Kay's personal garden, as another way for her memory to live on within the Japanese Garden.

*Read more about the specifics of this project in our previous post here

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony featured performances by the Japanese drum group Three Trails Taiko. Speeches were made by the project leaders involved as well as Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla, and guest from the Japanese Consulate in Chicago General Kenichi Okada. General Okada stated about Kay McFarland, "She wanted to have a place of beauty, serenity, and peace for the people of Topeka, and now her vision has been completed."

Many of the speakers and attendees spoke of the pride and joy they felt in now having a piece of art in the Kansas state capital. Patrons from all over will come to visit and share in its beauty as they walk the through the different paths of the garden.

Speakers: Brendan Wiley: Zoo Director, Michelle De La Isla: Topeka Mayor, Koji Morimoto: Lead Japanese Garden Design Expert, General Kenichi Okada: Chicago Japanese Consulate, Pat Colley: FOTZ director, Elaine Schwartz: Trustee
*Watch full Three Trails Taiko Japanese Drum performances here, or visit their Facebook page for more information

"Once in a lifetime do you get the change to build something that is this meaningful, and this important to present and future generations. We are honored and delighted to have played such an important part in this fabulous creation. Enjoy the Garden!" - Mick Hilleary, Total Habitat CEO

Follow our Instagram and Facebook as we share more pictures of this beautiful garden as it changes with the seasons.

Dale is extremely creative both at work and outside of it. He created the stamp we use put on some of our larger concrete projects that you can see above. He has made some terrifyingly accurate zombies costumes, and designed numerous t-shirt, patch, and sticker designs. When he isn't designing something new, you can find him spending time with his 5 dachsunds (Jesse, Mira, Juno, Sadie, Rudy) or singing. You can often find Dale singing karaoke in Wichita, and he especially likes when he can find live band karaoke to participate in across the county when traveling with work.

His favorite joke is, "How many psychologists does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change."

Katherine (or Kat) has been with Total Habitat as our resident accounts person since the very beginning.  As she said, "I remember when it was just a sparkle in my husband's eye".  We were lucky enough to snag her as our Office Manager full-time after she retired from teaching in 2016.  When asked about her favorite tool she said the old-school adding machine.  She said she had a mishap with the memory save option on a paperless method and won't go back, stating comically, "crying at your desk isn't good for office morale!".
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Outside of work Katherine enjoys getting together with friends and family, playing music, and painting.  She plays guitar and dabbles in several other instruments.  Katherine has been performing since she was young when she was in a band with her sister, and still continues to play with her family and friends at the Kit Kat Club in Bonner Springs.

Mick (Mickey or Flip) has been in charge of Total Habitat since he founded it in 1996. Mick has been in the zoo world for many years and was formerly the Curator of Exhibits at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita.  He had his "ah-ha" moment when he witnessed otters playing in the new chemical-free, and crystal-clear swimming pool exhibit they built. He realized that people should get to enjoy this wonderful chlorine-free experience for themselves!

Mick grew up in Kansas City, and has lived in Lawrence and Wichita before moving back to Bonner Springs.  One of his favorite projects was a Natural Swimming Pond in Tennessee. We rented an excavator that reached an extreme length of  60 feet so that we were able to use one large machine instead of several small ones to navigate around this huge pond project complete with water slide and swimming grotto!

This summer we will be taking a crew and heading to build a number of new zoo exhibits: cassowary, pygmy hippo, chilean flamingos, sand cat, black-footed cat, serval, fishing cat, and red panda. Some of the exhibits will be upgrades to animals already at the zoo, while others will be for animals new to the Greensboro Science Center! We had a wonderful meeting with many of the zoo's employees where we were able to showcase the models we built.  These models help give a visual example of what we hope to accomplish in an accurately scaled model, which also makes it easier for their experts to communicate the needs of the animals and feel comfortable in proceeding with the fabrication by Total Habitat.

Below you can view some of the original (V1) models we made for our first big showcase meeting.

Head over to the Greensboro NC website & read their article talking about their exciting new zoo expansion!

We can't wait to head back to the Greensboro Science Center and start making some new exciting exhibits for these animals! Check back here on our Blog or follow us on Facebook or Instagram for updates on this project and more!