But on a walk through the eight-acre bird park he oversees, just days after Salt Lake County voters approved a $19.6 million bond for an unprecedented construction boom at the aging avian menagerie, he begins at a spot that needs relatively little investment.

In the southeast corner of the aviary is a small grove of trees and some crude landscaping. Here, Brown excitedly envisions a play area constructed of boulders, logs and ship mooring line - a simple but magical place for children whose attention spans might not be up to the challenge of a day of birds, birds and more birds.

Obviously, it's taking some time for Brown to get used to the idea that he doesn't have to dream on a shoestring anymore. But following a three-decade period in which just $5 million has been invested in new construction, it's going to take him some time to get used to the idea of having money to spend.

"Before we'd talk about things" like an indoor tropical rain forest exhibit, a new bird show amphitheater and new education building - all of which are now planned - Brown said, "but it didn't pay to dream about it."

Now, Brown has the money to dream away. But he's also trying to remain rooted to the quaint, budget-wary operation that has been part of Salt Lake City's identity for 70 years.

Balanced between aviary's cash-strapped past and its much flusher future, Brown sees refurbished old exhibits and exciting new projects drawing visitors to the aviary, which is located in Liberty Park and last year welcomed just 70,000 visitors. By comparison, Utah's Hogle Zoo, which also received bond money from voters earlier this month, welcomed nearly a million guests last year.

Brown believes that one of the aviary's greatest challenges is that, although it's located in a place of stifling summers and bitter winters, it has few indoor spaces. To that end, almost all of the projects planned for the park are indoor exhibits.

It will begin with a new walk-through rain forest that - in a nod to the past and with an eye to the economical - will be built from the architectural skeleton of the Wilson Pavilion, now used predominantly for winter bird storage.

That will be followed by a new complex featuring birds from Mexico and Panama. That will complete a trifecta of Latin American exhibits for the park, which in 2005 completed its outdoor "Destination Argentina" project, featuring flamingos, parakeets and cuckoos.

The park also plans a new building for permanent educational displays and a bigger amphitheater for its bird show and is finishing work on an outdoor flight cage in which will be planted a replica of a Utah wetland.

All together, aviary leaders are hoping the new exhibits will help double attendance in the next five years - and restore its accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which would open doors to more funding from foundations. "For us to survive in the future, we absolutely must function in a way in which we don't have to keep going back to the citizens for money," Brown said.

While the new big-money exhibits are a big part of that plan, Brown knows they won't do it alone.

The biggest draw, he says, is the kind of magic that can only be created in the minds of young guests who are given room to explore, interact and immerse themselves in a new world.

And, as he knows - better than most, perhaps - that kind of dreaming is completely free.

mlaplante@sltrib.com