Case Study: California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California

Sustainable buildings don’t always look green, but the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is one that does. Covering the 400,000-square-foot building, which replaces a complex damaged beyond repair by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, is an undulating 2.5-acre living roof dotted with porthole-like skylights. This rolling landscape was conceived as a swath cut from the park and elevated 36 feet to the height of the old buildings, according to Renzo Piano, the Genoa, Italy-based architect of the academy’s new home.

The green roof—designed to reduce stormwater runoff, provide insulation, and create habitat for birds and insects—is the most conspicuous manifestation of the academy’s mission “to explore, explain, and protect the natural world.” Or, as Greg Farrington, the museum and research institution’s executive director explains, the academy’s activities are focused on pressing questions such as “How did we get here?” and “How we are going to stay?”