California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences
Established	1853
Location	Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, United States
Type	Natural History
Visitors	Over 1 million visits annually
Director	Gregory C. Farrington
Website	www.calacademy.org

The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world.^{[citation needed]} The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

Completely rebuilt in 2008, the building covers 400,000 square feet (37,000 square metres) and is among the newest natural history museums in the United States. The primary building in Golden Gate Park reopened on September 27, 2008.

Public education

The enclosed rainforest

Prior to being replaced, the old academy building attracted approximately half a million visitors each year.^{[citation needed]} As has been the case from the start, the main thrust of the exhibits is natural history. The main venues of the museum include the following:

• Morrison Planetarium - features the largest completely digital planetarium dome in the world
• Rainforests of the World - rainforest exhibit enclosed in a 90 feet (27 m) glass dome
• Steinhart Aquarium - includes exhibits of coral reef, tidepool, and swamp habitats; as well as an colony of African penguins

A rare albino American alligator named Claude

An albino reticulated python named Lemondrop

Philippine Coral Reef

Research

The academy conducts research in 11 different fields, including anthropology, marine biology, botany, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate zoology, mammalogy, and ornithology.

Geological research also has a long history at the academy, with a concentration on paleontology.^{[citation needed]} There also is a strong emphasis on environmental concerns, with all the various departments collaborating closely to focus on systematic biology and biodiversity.^{[citation needed]}

History

Academy of Sciences in 2003, two years before reconstruction began

The California Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1853, only three years after California joined the United States, becoming the first society of its kind in the Western U.S.^{[citation needed]} Its stated aim was to undertake "a thorough systematic survey of every portion of the State and the collection of a cabinet of her rare and rich productions".^{[citation needed]} It was renamed as the more inclusive California Academy of Sciences in 1868.^{[citation needed]}

The academy had a forward-thinking approach to the involvement of women in science, passing a resolution in its first year of existence that the members "highly approve of the aid of females in every department of natural science, and invite their cooperation".^{[citation needed]} This policy led to several women being hired into professional positions as botanists, entomologists, and other occupations during the 19th century, when opportunities for women in the sciences were limited, and often, those that existed were restricted to menial cataloging and calculation work.^{[citation needed]}

The academy's first official museum opened in 1874 at the corner of California and Dupont Streets (now Grant Avenue) in what now is Chinatown, and drew up to 80,000 visitors a year.^{[citation needed]} To accommodate its increasing popularity, the academy moved to a new and larger building on Market Street in 1891, funded by the legacy of James Lick, a 19th century San Francisco real estate mogul, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.^{[citation needed]} Only fifteen years later, however, the Market Street facility fell victim to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which also wiped out large swathes of the academy's library and specimen collections.^{[citation needed]} In the widespread destruction occurring in the aftermath of the quake, academy curators and staffers only were able to retrieve a single cart of materials, including academy minute books, membership records, and 2,000 type specimens.^{[citation needed]} Fortunately, an expedition to the Galápagos Islands (the first of several sponsored by the academy) already was underway, and it returned seven months later, providing replacement collections for those lost.

It was not until 1916 that the Academy moved to the North American Hall of Birds and Mammals in Golden Gate Park, the first building on the site that was to become its permanent home.^{[citation needed]} In 1923, the Steinhart Aquarium was added, followed in 1934 by the Simson African Hall.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II, the academy contributed to the American war effort by using its workshop facilities to repair optical and navigational equipment for United States Navy ships; San Francisco was a major port for the Pacific War arena.^{[citation needed]}

The post-war years saw a flurry of new construction on the site; the Science Hall was added in 1951, followed by the Morrison Planetarium in 1952. The Morrison Planetarium was the seventh major planetarium to open in the United States and featured a one-of-a-kind star projector, built by academy staff members (in part using the expertise gained doing the optical work for the U.S. Navy during World War II).^{[citation needed]}

The Academy Projector produced a remarkably natural-looking star field. It projected irregularly shaped stars, rather than the circular stars projected by many optical star projectors. The irregular shapes were created by placing variously sized grains of silicon carbide onto the glass star plates by hand, then aluminizing the plates, and brushing away the silicon carbide grains.^{[citation needed]}

In 1959, the Malliard Library, Eastwood Hall of Botany, and Livermore Room all were added. Throughout the 1960s, universities concentrating on the new field of molecular biology divested themselves of their specimen collections, entrusting them to the academy and leading to a rapid growth of the academy's holdings.^{[citation needed]}

In 1969, another new building, Cowell Hall, was added to the site. In 1976, several new galleries were opened, and the following year, in 1977, the "fish roundabout" was constructed.^{[citation needed]}

Prior to the old building being torn down in 2005, there was a Life through Time gallery, housing a large display on evolution and paleontology. There was a Gem & Mineral Hall, a section on Earthquakes, and a Gary Larson exhibit.^{[citation needed]}

Earthquake damage and new building

The academy buildings were damaged significantly in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Subsequently, the Bird Hall building was closed to ensure public safety. The inadequately engineered Steinhart Aquarium suffered dramatic seismic damage from the 1989 earthquake, as well.^{[citation needed]}

As plans were made to repair the damage and make the buildings seismically stable, it was realized that a considerable amount of work would be needed to bring the buildings up to modern standards. This led to the idea of giving the academy a complete overhaul, thus motivating the closing of the main site.^{[citation needed]}

Construction began on the new $500 million building on September 12, 2005, while the exhibits were moved to 875 Howard Street for a temporary museum.^{[citation needed]}

The academy reopened with a free day on September 27, 2008. For most of the day the line for admittance was over a mile (nearly two kilometers) long, and although over 15,000 people were admitted, several thousands more had to be turned away.

New building's environmental design

Piazza behind the Main Entrance, natural lighting

The design architect for the museum replacement project was Renzo Piano. His design was awarded the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Award for Excellence for the Americas region in 2008, as well as the Holcim Award Silver for sustainable construction projects for the of region North America in 2005. One critic praised the building as a "blazingly uncynical embrace of the Enlightenment values of truth and reason" and a "comforting reminder of the civilizing function of great art in a barbaric age".

The new building is at the forefront of environmentally friendly design, in keeping with the academy's focus on ecological concerns and environmental sustainability. It received Platinum certification under the LEED program. As a result of its environmentally friendly design and other unique features, this project was featured on the Discovery Channel Extreme Engineering series in 2006 and on the National Geographic Channel Man-Made series in July 2008.

The new building includes an array of environmentally friendly features.

• Produces 50 percent less waste water than previously
• Recycles rainwater for irrigation
• Uses 60,000 photovoltaic cells
• Supports a green roof with an area of 2.5 acres (1.0 hectare)
• Uses natural lighting in 90 percent of occupied spaces
• Was constructed of over 20,000 cubic yards (15,000 m³) of recycled concrete
• Construction includes 11 million pounds (5,000 t) of recycled steel
• Wall insulation made from scraps of recycled denim

Removed features of new building

• Insect room
• Fish roundabout
• Far Side cartoons
• Crystal and mineral hall
• California animals diorama hall including plankton display and sea lion display
• Reptile and amphibian displays in central court
• Space exhibitions
• Dinosaur forest display with velociraptors
• Dinosaur holograms
• Black pilot whale fountain
• Ancient seas diorama

See also

• 49-Mile Scenic Drive

Further reading

• Natural Phenomenon, by Matt Tyrnauer, Vanity Fair, May 2008
• Cutting Edge Construction - National Geographic Channel
• Concrete and Strawberries - California magazine, September 2008
• Beyond Green - California Home + Design, September 2008
• "A Look at the Cal Academy of Sciences of 1891-1906". Bearings. Retrieved 2009-07-19. 

External links

• Official website
• PDFs on national media reports on Academy's ongoing construction