The new California Academy of Sciences Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, designed by Pritzker-prize winning architect Renzo Piano, is scheduled to open in 2008 as a LEED® Platinum Green Museum. Its roof, looking something like a sod house on the U.S. frontier with a Dr. Seuss-ian twist, is getting a blanket of green.
Designed in collaboration with Renzo Piano, the Academy, Rana Creek Living Architecture, Chong and Partners Architecture, SWA Group, and ARUP Engineering, the roof – whose the bulbous form is meant to mimic the rolling hills of the surrounding landscape – will feature five native plant species.
In addition to introducing the 160,000 square feet of green overhead, the building’s new design will allow two acres of land to be returned to Golden Gate Park. Other features include earthquake-safe construction and recycled building materials such as denim insulation.
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