The California Academy of Sciences is still constructing its new "green" facility combining innovative architecture and energy efficient design, but the new one-of-a-kind museum has already been dubbed by experts to be a technological marvel.
The new building and research facility is slated to open in the fall of 2008 in Golden Gate Park and is expected to draw more than 2 million people a year. The $430 million dollar project is more than half finished three years after the 90-year-old museum had been closed for visitors and demolished.
"We are on schedule and on budget," said Chris Andrews, Director of the Steinhart Aquarium. "We'll start to move in the building at the end of October or November this year and we are very excited about it."
The new Academy will house Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, and the Kimball Natural Museum.
Some of the old favorites such as the African Hall Diorama and the alligator's swamp have been revamped. The new African Hall Diorama will showcase live snakes and reptiles, and a large window will allow viewing of African penguins swimming and waddling at the penguin habitat.
One of the most distinctive features of the new Academy is the "living roof" which rises 40 feet in the air and includes mounds and hills planted with native grass and plants. The grass-covered roof will be supported by undulating steel beams.
According to building architect Renzo Piano, the roof's design is like "lifting a piece of the park and putting a building under it." A portion of the roof will be accessible to visitors providing an up-close view of the rooftop environment.
Another dramatic feature will be a four-story rainforest inside a glass dome. The only other dome of its kind is located in Italy. It will be the first in the U.S. and the largest living rain forest display in the world.
Inside the glass dome people will be able to stroll along a spiral ramp that will wind to the top of the dome introducing them to rainforests from Borneo, Madagascar and Costa Rica. According to the Academy, the ramp has such tight curves and complex geometry that a rollercoaster manufacturer was hired to shape the steel.
Opposite the rainforest dome another similarly sized dome is being constructed to house the new Morrison Planetarium. Imitating the tilt of planet Earth at a 23-degree angle, the Morrison Planetarium sphere is constructed over the museum's 212,000-gallon living coral reef tank.
The new planetarium will be filled with state of the art exhibits and digital technology. "When the new Planetarium opens next year we'll push the limits once again with both new technology and new content," said the new Director of Morrison Planetarium Ryan Wyatt.
According to the Academy's Stephanie Stone, some of the building's new features include remote-controlled windows which provide natural ventilation and can open and close automatically to ensure enough natural light and airflow in the building.
In addition, the planted roof will provide insulation for the building which will keep the building cool during the summer months and warm during the winter reducing the need for air conditioning and heating.
"The new museum reflects our mission to protect the planet and the natural world and we want to make sure we build the new museum as 'green' and as sustainable as possible," said Stone.
Saltwater for the aquariums will be piped in from the Pacific Ocean and the aquarium water will be purified and recycled. 60,000 photovoltaic cells mounted in the glass canopy of the roof will provide clean energy and thus reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
Dr. Carol Tang from the Academy added, "Once again we are in a phase where a lot of scientific breakthroughs are happening, but in these days we strive to understand the world around us by connecting people to the natural world, and to understand our human impact, and what is the future of all [of us]."
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