practicallyostensible
Julia
This thing has been being rebuilt for years (it was my favorite place to visit when I was a kid). The new exhibits seem amazing, additionally it is being built as a sustainable, resource-efficient, completely "green" building.
Total project cost: $429 million
Key features:
-- 2.5-acre "living roof" with 1.7 million native plants, nine species
-- 38,000 live animals, including 600 free-flying birds and butterflies in rain forest exhibit
-- Morrison Planetarium with a 90-foot-diameter dome, matching the largest in North America at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles
-- World's deepest living coral reef exhibit
-- African hall with dioramas and a live African penguin enclosure
-- Swamp exhibit housing live alligators and alligator snapping turtles
-- Collection of 20 million scientific specimens dating back to the Academy's founding in 1853
This week:
"Work crews are about to start planting the roof of the new California Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate Park -- an architectural capstone that also qualifies as one of the world's most ambitious biodiversity experiments..."
The rest of the article can be viewed here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...PPKM01.DTL&hw=GARDEN+IN+THE+SKY&sn=002&sc=925
Timelapse video of the Academy being built:
http://www.calacademy.org/newacademy/new_academy_video.php
Total project cost: $429 million
Key features:
-- 2.5-acre "living roof" with 1.7 million native plants, nine species
-- 38,000 live animals, including 600 free-flying birds and butterflies in rain forest exhibit
-- Morrison Planetarium with a 90-foot-diameter dome, matching the largest in North America at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles
-- World's deepest living coral reef exhibit
-- African hall with dioramas and a live African penguin enclosure
-- Swamp exhibit housing live alligators and alligator snapping turtles
-- Collection of 20 million scientific specimens dating back to the Academy's founding in 1853
This week:
"Work crews are about to start planting the roof of the new California Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate Park -- an architectural capstone that also qualifies as one of the world's most ambitious biodiversity experiments..."
The rest of the article can be viewed here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...PPKM01.DTL&hw=GARDEN+IN+THE+SKY&sn=002&sc=925
Timelapse video of the Academy being built:
http://www.calacademy.org/newacademy/new_academy_video.php