Long a San Francisco tradition, the California Academy of Sciences, which was badly damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, was closed for major renovations in 2005. On September 27, it is scheduled to re-open, an almost entirely new set of buildings, and one of the world's most innovative green museums.
The facility stands out as the only one in the world with a planetarium, an aquarium, a natural history museum, and a top-level research institution in one venue. (More at cnet news)
I actually went last night for the member preview. And I have to say...it was pretty awesome. They did an incredible job with the aquarium portion. Unfortunately, the planentarium doesn't open until the official opening...but the facility is incredible. I have to admit, I think my favorite part of the whole thing is the green roof. Oh and the sting ray pool was sweet too. Here are just a few pictures I took:
By the time I got up to the roof, it was pretty dark so the pictures didn't come out too well...but needless to say, it was very very cool. And I highly recommend it to anyone in the Bay Area (or coming to visit San Francisco).
The only thing was the reptile display was a lot smaller than when I was a kid (and that's not just my memory of things seeming bigger back then...). The reptile section was pretty much limited to the alligator pool (they used to have all sorts of snakes too). And the only other thing was just this one display in the hall of natural history (aka the African hall) was replaced with some penguins. Penguins are cool. But I did miss the display with the giraffe and the elephant (not realy ones). Ah well.
In any case...it's a gorgeous facility. Oh and the rainforest biodome thing is pretty sweet too.
