California Academy of Sciences: The Living Green Cathedral
Why is it significant?
Stand in the grand plaza before the California Academy of Sciences, one of the most innovative and environmentally sustainable museum buildings on Earth.
Key Facts
| Place | California Academy of Sciences: The Living Green Cathedral |
|---|---|
| Address | 55 Music Concourse Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA |
| Geo Coordinates | 37.76980, -122.46600 |
| Part of Walk | San Francisco: Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate Park |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in the grand plaza before the California Academy of Sciences, one of the most innovative and environmentally sustainable museum buildings on Earth. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano and reopened in 2008 following a major rebuilding program, the museum integrates an aquarium, a planetarium, a four-story living rainforest, and a natural history museum under a single extraordinary green canopy. Founded in 1853, the California Academy of Sciences is the oldest scientific institution in the American West.
Look up at the building's signature feature: the 2.5-acre Living Roof, undulating with seven dramatic hills that mimic the iconic topography of San Francisco. Planted with nearly two million native California plants, including sea pinks, yellow lupines, and beach strawberries, the roof absorbs up to two million gallons of rainwater annually, provides natural insulation that slashes energy use, and creates a flourishing habitat for native birds, bees, and butterflies in the middle of the city.
Piano designed the building with soaring glass walls so visitors outside on the concourse can look straight through the public lobby into the indoor rain forest dome and research laboratories. Sixty thousand photovoltaic cells generate clean solar power along the roof's perimeter canopy, earning the building top-tier double-platinum LEED green certifications. Generations of community members and curious visitors have gathered here, drawing inspiration from the bold creative energy and unwavering solidarity that transformed this district into a worldwide symbol. Generations of community members and curious visitors have gathered here, drawing inspiration from the bold creative energy and unwavering solidarity that transformed this district into a worldwide symbol.
Beneath your feet in the Steinhart Aquarium, a recreated Philippine coral reef tank holds two hundred twelve thousand gallons of water and thousands of kaleidoscopic tropical marine animals, one of the deepest living coral displays in the world.
Turn around to face the wide sunken plaza of the Music Concourse and stroll toward the Spreckels Temple of Music.