For someone with “interior” in her degree, Crista McGee ’91 spends a lot of time outdoors.

Like her fellow alumni from UNC Greensboro’s acclaimed interior architecture (IARc) department, she creates living spaces centered around safety and comfort. But her clients need room to sharpen claws, chase tails, or stretch trunks.

“How unique is it to be a part of designing animal habitats that so many people in North Carolina and beyond love to come to?” she says. 

Those habitats are spread across the North Carolina Zoo. McGee, who began as a student intern, now oversees the creation and upkeep of all the exhibits as Deputy Director and Chief Facilities Management Officer. She manages about 75 employees from Planning & Construction, Exhibits, Horticulture, and Maintenance, all committed to ensuring that the animals and their human guests are equally satisfied with their stay.

Igniting a Sense of Purpose 

That first spark of interest in architecture began with McGee’s mother, who collected design magazines and drove around neighborhoods just to look at the exteriors of homes. But McGee grew more interested in what was happening inside. “Because that’s where you have to live,” she says. “If that doesn’t function, the whole thing doesn’t work.” 

The bachelor of fine arts in interior architecture was a perfect blend of convenience and academics. It was the only program of its kind within the UNC System and just a short drive from her home. 

“I was learning stuff that was so new and unique,” she says. “Being able to draw, build models. All of my professors – Tom Lambeth, the late Jerry Leimenstoll and Joe Standley – were such great teachers, all very unique, each and every one of them.”

She completed two internships: the zoo in Asheboro and a photography studio. One offered an air-conditioned office while the other kept her outside during hot, muggy summers. But her love for the zoo’s mission sealed her career choice. “I wanted that sense of purpose,” she states. “I wanted to do something that would last, that people would get a lot out of, or could affect the lives of others.”

Learning extended well beyond the classroom; she would also have to help build the exhibits. She signed up for a welding class at Randolph Community College. When she walked into the shop on her first day, the teacher thought she was lost. “I was the first girl he’d ever taught,” she says. 

At the Zoo, she never stops learning. She can compare notes with other accredited zoos and aquariums. And right now, the North Carolina Zoo is contracting with CLR Design, which was originally founded by John Coe. “He was basically the grandfather of exhibit design for animals,” says McGee. 

That contract will culminate in the opening of a new continent with new animals. Next year, the NC Zoo will open Asia alongside its current exhibits in the North America and Africa continents. 

Room to Grow 

When designing these “interiors,” McGee always thinks about how to best capture animals’ native habitats. To stimulate their minds, she considers “choice and control;” the animals can move in and out of their sleeping spaces during the day, and she adds “furniture” for engaging play.

“We work with the zookeepers to understand the animals’ behaviors,” she explains. “Primates are a perfect example. They need to be climbing, so you put in lots of climbers to give the habitat complexity. We just added a tree to the gorilla exhibit. I designed that on a paper napkin while I was on a trip with my daughter.”

The North Carolina Zoo stands out for its size. Most zoos are in cities, requiring smaller exhibits packed more tightly together. Randolph County, meanwhile, contains one of the highest percentages of agricultural land in the state.

Nowhere is that size more apparent than the Watani Grasslands, 42 acres that McGee helped redesign for the elephants, rhinos, antelope, and other African species to spread out further. “That was really important, giving the elephants a lot more space because they roam so much,” she says. 

The polar bear build-out was another important job. Her expansion added to the older Arctic Waters habitat with more Tundra elements. She says, “The new addition allows us to separate the animals for better husbandry and management. And now it has more natural substrate with grass and a stream. It looks more like their natural environment.”

Interior architects have to work with the space they’re given. The Piedmont’s rolling hills can create surprises. While working on the Watani Grasslands renovation, McGee came up with the Shani Loop, a boardwalk that leads people further into the grasslands for a closer perspective. 

“We didn’t realize the play on scale at the time,” she recalls. “In our drawings, we thought guests would be at the same level as our male elephant, C’sar. But when we built it and walked out for the first time, it looked like the animals were slightly above us. With the sheer size of the elephant, that is a cool and unforgettable experience.” 

The North Carolina Zoo received an Association of Zoos and Aquariums Significant Achievement Award for Exhibit Design for the Watani Grasslands project. 

Educational and Empathetic by Design 

One of her favorite spots was inspired by a book: “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.” She explains, “Think of kids who can’t function without a phone in their hand, who need to be near an outlet to plug in. Getting kids to play in a natural environment is really important.”

She worked with the Zoo’s Education team to create Kidzone. There, children can play in a stream, which is ADA-compliant for wheelchairs. They can trek across a treetop trail, hide in a stone maze, and serve up mud pies in the Mud Cafe.

Throughout the zoo, they encourage “parallel play.” When they gave gorillas a tree to climb, they placed a similar tree outside the exhibit for children. McGee says, “When you do things like that, it creates empathy for the animal. Kids pretend to be the animal, and they can more closely relate to it.” 

And what’s interior design without some artistic flourishes? The zoo hosts more than 150 art pieces – some made by UNCG alumni – along the walking paths. A few are even interactive. The zoo also loaned some artwork to Asheboro’s Bicentennial Park, library, and the new Cone Health Zoo City Sportsplex, for which McGee had a seat on the fundraising board. 

It all takes her back to that decision at the beginning of her career to do something that leaves a lasting impression in her community. “When you create empathy for wildlife, you’re more inclined to want to take care of it. It really is this big, holistic package.”