
From a bird’s-eye view, the domes of the California Academy of Sciences, set to open in the fall, bulge out of the ground like giant scoops of green ice cream. These undulating hills built into the museum’s 2.5-acre, flora-covered roof integrate the building into the green space of surrounding Golden Gate Park. They also conserve energy, since the roof insulates and ventilates the 400,000-square-foot museum below.

Beneath the roof, museumgoers will find a natural-history museum, a planetarium, a rainforest with free-flying birds, a coral reef inhabited by 4,000 fish, and an aquarium filled with saltwater pumped in from the Pacific Ocean. The most influential display, though, may well be the marriage of the museum’s physical design with its educational mission. “It’s not about dusty stuffed animals,” says executive director Greg Farrington. “It’s about human survival and living in harmony on planet Earth.”
Check out our animated tour, below, and launch our photo gallery of the world's greenest museum here.
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Comments
I think that things like this will lead to revolutions in technology and environmental acts in the future.
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulI love how more and more research is showing us how we can use nature to our benefit, w/o having to destroy it the way we have for the past few centuries. Large cities are trying to incorporate green roof tops for the sky scrapers and smaller office buildings. Even homeowners are using these to their benefits. If only we could get more people to use geo-thermal energy to heat their homes, ppl would save millions on heating costs, as well as benefit the environment, and decrease dependency on foreign oil, etc. Unfortunately, these technologies are suppressed by large corporations who will not be able to generate profit from the eco - friendly choices.
0 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulfrom San Francisco, California
Indeed.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulYou might find the academy website on the building more informative... http://www.calacademy.org/academy/building/index.php
Enjoy!
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful