October 30 2007

New Academy of Sciences San Francisco

The San Francisco Chronicle recently had a sneak peak tour in the new Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park. The $484 million dollar facility is being designed by Renzo Piano.

The most striking feature of the building is the 2.5 acre green roof covering the entire building. The roof has seven "hills" meant to recall the seven hills that comprise San Francisco. The two largest domes house the Living Rain Forest and the Planetarium and are some 90' in diameter. A smaller dome rolls over the barrel vaulted entrance to the aquarium. Four small domes or hills are also located on the roof. The roof will eventually be covered by 1 million native plants and collect over 2 million gallons of water per year. Interestingly, the roof shape was even modeled to funnel cool air into the central atrium to help condition the building.

The building has a number of other sustainable features including operable windows, recycled insulation, and many of the others you would expect on a project like this.

For more information please visit the original SF Chronicle article and take a look at the following video walk through of the building.

October 30th, 2007 at 1:43 PM. Posted in Industry + Practice. Share this post.