The California Academy of Sciences is one of the ten largest museums of natural history in the World and one of the newest ones having just been renovated in 2008. Melissa and I always enjoy visiting this place so much so that we bought a membership a year ago. For $99, you can get in the Academy for an unlimited number of times throughout the year and bring one guest. So far, we’ve been to the Academy roughly 5 times so our membership has paid for itself many times over. On today’s visit we took our cousin Nikki, who came from Singapore on a visit. We spent hours at the Academy of Sciences, clearly not enough time for any of us.
One of the most striking things visitors will notice as soon as they get there is the architecture. Designed by Renzo Piano, the building is a masterpiece in architecture. Utilizing the latest in green building technology, the building sustains itself. Glimpsed through the concourse’s grove of sycamores, the Academy of Science gives the impression of weightlessness. A row of steel columns soaring 36 feet high along the facade lends the building a classical air; the sense of lightness is accentuated by a wafer-thin canopy above that creates the illusion that the roof is only millimeters thick. The green, living roof is a major draw as well as it showcases native plants and vegetation while helping keep the building cool in the summer months.
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