CLEVELAND, Ohio - The much-beloved Viktor Schreckengost pachyderm sculptures that once graced the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo are on deck for a new long-term run in an even more visible spot behind the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, a gateway to University Circle.

The 32-ton terra cotta reliefs, originally created by Schreckengost in 1955, will be reinstalled this spring on a concrete, limestone-faced display wall overlooking the recently reconfigured intersection of East Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

A rendering shows how the Schreckengost pachyderms will look when installed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Schreckengost, who died in 2008 at age 101, founded the industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1931, and is considered one of the greatest American industrial designers of the 20th century.

A designer for the people

He designed everything from trucks and buses to lawn chairs, dinnerware, toys and household appliances. As an educator, he helped launch the careers of scores of influential students, including Joe Oros, chief designer of the 1965 Ford Mustang, and Cleveland industrial designers John Nottingham and John Spirk.

Schreckengost was also an artist, specializing in ceramics, watercolors and prints.

A Cleveland Press photo of sculptor Viktor Schreckengost working on the mammoth sculpture at the Metropark Zoo's old Pachyderm Building.

The pachyderm sculptures, which depict a mastodon and a mammoth with their respective infants, will be visible to thousands of motorist a day at one of the city's busiest crossroads.

Evalyn Gates, the director of the museum, said the sculptures will be a welcoming statement for motorists arriving in University Circle via the I-90 Shoreway and the Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park.

"This is part of Cleveland's cultural heritage," she said.

For decades, the sculptures occupied a brick wall on the exterior of the zoo's Pachyderm House. They were removed and placed in storage in 2008, when the zoo demolished the building and created a new elephant exhibit.

A big deal

Gates helped negotiate a deal under which Cleveland Metroparks agreed to place the sculptures on long-term loan to the museum.

"To have something so unique and iconic, and known by so many Clevelanders at the zoo, is an incredible opportunity," she said. "I can't wait to get them up."

The artworks will be installed in the new Larry and Sally Zlotnick Sears West Garden, named in honor of a $1 million gift from Case Western Reserve University adjunct professor and trustee Larry Sears and his wife, Sally Sears, recent donors to Think[box] at CWRU. Sally Sears is also a trustee at the natural history museum.

"Sally and I immediately responded favorably," when the museum asked whether they would fund the West Garden, Larry Sears said Friday, speaking from Beaver Creek, Col.

A map shows the location of the new Sears Garden, left at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

"It's a very interesting story that these sculptures were still around," he said. "They fit beautifully with the project."

Digging the foundation

Work could begin as soon as next week on the foundation for the display wall, the museum said. The installation is scheduled for completion by June 10, in time for the Republican National Convention, along with the museum's new 300-space garage.

The garage and sculpture installation are part of the $20 million first phase of the museum's larger, $150 million expansion and renovation, scheduled for completion in 2020, in time for the museum' s centennial.

Also scheduled for completion this summer and a grand opening on the weekend of Aug. 6-7 is the museum's new Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden, which will move from the north to the south side of the museum's complex, along Jeptha Drive.

Laid out and ready to go: The Schreckengost mastodon and baby at a Cleveland warehouse on Wednesday. Items on shelves are wrapped pieces of the Schreckengost mammoth and infant.

At the new Perkins Center, visitors will be able to traverse elevated walkways at treetop level to survey rescued otters, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, owls, a bald eagle, and other creatures native to the region.

Pending their arrival in University Circle, the Schreckengost sculptures are in storage in a downtown warehouse.

As of Wednesday, the mastodon parent and child were laid out horizontally on a large plywood platform like a giant jigsaw puzzle made of 38 individual segments of fired terra cotta, each of which weighs hundreds of pounds.

Ready to move

The mammoth and baby comprise 50 terra cotta pieces, already wrapped and set on steel shelves and ready to be moved. Each is labeled according to a numbering system created by Schreckengost.

The Viktor Schreckengost mammoth as originally installed at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. John Seyfried photo courtesy Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Employees of the non-profit ICA Art Conservation, which is helping oversee the reinstallation at the museum, also oversaw the removal and conservation of the sculptures from the Pachyderm Building at the zoo with VIP Restoration Inc.

ICA's Charles Eiben, the firm's art transport manager and preparatory, was a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art when Schreckengost still taught there and remembers him well.

The firm has also worked recently on restoring Schreckengost's "Early Settler" ceramic mural at Lakewood High School, and is restoring the designer's city-owned "Time and Space" relief sculptures for reinstallation at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

"It's a shame he's not around to enjoy this," he said. "I love being involved with anything Schreckengost."

Note: This story has been updated to include the full official names of the Sears West Garden and Perkins Center at the museum, and that Sally Z. Sears is a museum trustee