Kansas City Zoo’s Penguin Plaza

The Kansas City Zoo has never had penguins. But by the end of next year it will boast  one of the best exhibits of its kind in the country. It will have a 100,000-gallon pool of chilled water for cold-climate penguin species. Their indoor space will include a snow-making machine.

A separate, 25,000-gallon pool will have both indoor and outdoor areas for warmer-climate Humboldt penguins.

Three other aquariums will house coral reef fish, schooling fish and jellyfish.

The exhibit will be called the Helzberg Penguin Plaza after a major gift from Shirley and Barnett Helzberg in memory of the late Barnett C. Helzberg Sr.

The penguins’ home will be next to the zoo’s carousel, not far from the entrance to the animal park. It will be the latest major addition to the zoo in a decade that has also seen a polar bear exhibit, a revamped tropical building, a new zoo entrance and learning center, a shortcut path to the African exhibits and a sky ride.