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| Established | 1853 (1853) |
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| Location | Golden Gate Park San Francisco,California, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°46′12″N122°27′59″W / 37.7701°N 122.4664°W /37.7701; -122.4664 |
| Type | Natural history |
| Accreditation | AAM ASTC |
| Visitors | 1.34 million (2016)[1] |
| Director | Scott D. Sampson (2020)[2] |
| Architect | Renzo Piano |
| Employees | 504 (May 2020)[2] |
| Public transit access | |
| Website | calacademy.org |
TheCalifornia Academy of Sciences is a research institute andnatural history museum inSan Francisco, California, that is among the largestmuseums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens.[3] The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research.[4] The institution is located in Golden Gate Park on theWest Side of San Francisco.
Completely rebuilt in 2008, the academy's primary building in Golden Gate Park covers 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2).[3][5] In early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Academy of Sciences had around 500 employees and an annual revenue of about $33 million.[2]
The California Academy of Sciences, California's oldest operating museum and research institution for the natural sciences, is governed by a 41-member board of trustees[6] who are nominated and chosen by theCalifornia Academy of Sciences Fellows. The Academy Fellows[7] are in turn, "[n]ominated by their colleagues and appointed by the Board of Trustees...the Fellows remain members of the Fellowship for life."[8] The board of trustees is then responsible for appointing the executive management of the academy,[9] who in turn are responsible for overseeing the academy's overall operation and the hiring of its other managers and employees.
Besides its function as a source of public science education through its museum, the California Academy of Sciences also operates the Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability (IBSS)[10] as its research arm, conducting research in the fields of taxonomy, phylogenetics, and biodiversity studies. Although one aspect of the IBSS is available for viewing by museum patrons at the science "project lab" exhibit, most of the research happens in laboratories and facilities, "behind the scenes", and not observable by the public. In fact, unbeknownst to most patrons, research and administrative facilities occupy nearly 50% of the Academy's physical structure.[citation needed]
The main thrust of the exhibits is natural history. The venues of the museum include the following:[12]
Besides its museum programs, the California Academy of Sciences offers many educational and community outreach programs[13] to members of the public at large.
Academy scientists, under the Academy's Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability,[14] conductsystematic andconservation research in several different fields, includinganthropology,marine biology,botany,entomology,herpetology,ichthyology, invertebratezoology,mammalogy,ornithology,geology, andpaleontology.[3] There also is a strong emphasis on environmental concerns, with all the various departments collaborating closely to focus on systematicbiology andbiodiversity.[14] Academy researchers study life around the world: a 2011 expedition to thePhilippines discovered an estimated 300 species new to science.[15] The Academy publishes the peer-reviewed journalProceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, as well asOccasional Papers,Memoirs, andSpecial Publications.[16]
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TheCalifornia Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1853, only three years after California joined the United States, becoming the first society of its kind in theWestern US. Its stated aim was to undertake "a thorough systematic survey of every portion of the State and the collection of a cabinet of her rare and rich productions."[citation needed] It was renamed as the more inclusiveCalifornia Academy of Sciences in 1868.
The academy had a forward-thinking view towards women in science, passing a resolution in its first year that the members "highly approve of the aid of females in every department of natural science, and invite their cooperation."[citation needed] This policy led to several women being hired into professional positions asbotanists,entomologists, and other occupations during the 19th century, when opportunities for women in the sciences were limited, and often, those that existed were restricted to menial cataloging and calculation work. In 1892,Alice Eastwood, abotanist, was hired by the academy and worked there until she retired in 1949. She created the collection of rare plants, which was saved when the academy was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake[17]
The academy's first official museum opened in 1874 at the corner of California and Dupont Streets (now Grant Avenue) in what is nowChinatown, and drew up to 80,000 visitors a year.[citation needed] To accommodate its increasing popularity, the academy moved to a new and larger building on Market Street in 1891, funded by the legacy ofJames Lick, a 19th-century San Francisco real estate mogul,entrepreneur, andphilanthropist.[citation needed]
However, only fifteen years later, the Market Street facility fell victim to the1906 San Francisco earthquake and three days of fire, which also wiped out all but a wheelbarrow full of the academy's library and specimen collections.[citation needed] In the widespread destruction occurring in the aftermath of the quake, academy curators and staffers only were able to retrieve a single cart of materials, including academy minute books, membership records, and 2,000type specimens.[citation needed] The 1905–1906 scientific collecting expedition to theGalápagos Islands (the first of several sponsored by the academy to the archipelago) already was underway, and it returned seven months later, providing replacement collections for those lost.[18][19]
In 1916, the Academy moved to the North American Hall of Birds and Mammals inGolden Gate Park, the first building on the site that was to become its permanent home.[citation needed] In 1923, the Steinhart Aquarium was added, followed in 1934 by the Simson African Hall.[citation needed]
DuringWorld War II, the Academy contributed to the American war effort by using its workshop facilities to repair optical and navigational equipment forUnited States Navy ships; San Francisco was a major port for thePacific War arena.
The post-war years saw a flurry of new construction on the site; the Science Hall was added in 1951, followed by the Morrison Planetarium in 1952. The Morrison Planetarium was the seventh majorplanetarium to open in the United States and featured a one-of-a-kindstar projector, built by Academy staff members (in part using the expertise gained doing the optical work for the US Navy during World War II). The Academy Projector projected irregularly shaped stars, rather than the circular stars projected by many optical star projectors. The irregular shapes were created by placing variously sized grains ofsilicon carbide onto the glass star plates by hand, thenaluminizing the plates, and brushing away the silicon carbide grains.[citation needed]
In 1959, the Malliard Library, Eastwood Hall of Botany, and Livermore Room all were added. Throughout the 1960s, universities concentrating on the new field ofmolecular biology divested themselves of their traditional specimen collections, entrusting them to the academy and leading to a rapid growth of the Academy's holdings.
In 1969, another new building, Cowell Hall, was added to the site. In 1976, several new galleries were opened, and the following year, in 1977, the "fish roundabout" was constructed.[citation needed]
Before the old building being torn down in 2005, there was aLife through Time gallery, housing a large display onevolution andpaleontology. There was a Gem and Mineral Hall, a section on Earthquakes, and aGary Larson exhibit.
The academy buildings were damaged significantly in the1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Subsequently, the Bird Hall building was closed to ensure public safety. Theinadequately engineered Steinhart Aquarium suffered dramatic seismic damage from the 1989 earthquake, as well.[20]
As plans were made to repair the damage and make thebuildings seismically stable, it was realized that a considerable amount of work would be needed to bring the buildingsup to modern standards. This led to the idea of giving the academy a complete overhaul, thus motivating the closing of the main site.[citation needed]
Construction began on the new $500 million building on September 12, 2005, while the exhibits were moved to 875Howard Street for a temporary museum.[21]
The academy reopened with a free day on September 27, 2008. For most of the day, the line for admittance was over a mile (nearly two kilometers) long, and although over 15,000 people were admitted, several thousands more had to be turned away.[22]
In May 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, the Academy announced that it would lay off 105 of its then 504 employees, furlough 96 others, and enact pay cuts among part of the rest.[2] Due to the COVID-19 lockdown's effect on ticket sales, the organization was expecting its revenue to decrease by around $12 million (36%) in the next fiscal year.[2]
The designarchitect for the museum replacement project wasRenzo Piano. His design was awarded the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Award for Excellence for the Americas region in 2008,[23] as well as theHolcim Award Silver for sustainable construction projects in the North America region in 2005.[24] One critic praised the building as a "blazingly uncynical embrace of theEnlightenment values of truth and reason", and a "comforting reminder of the civilizing function of great art in a barbaric age".[25]
The new building emphasizesenvironmentally friendly design, in keeping with the academy's focus on ecological concerns and environmental sustainability. It receivedPlatinum certification under theLEED program.[26] This project was featured on theDiscovery ChannelExtreme Engineering series in 2006,[27] theNational Geographic ChannelMan-Made series in July 2008,[28] andSmithsonian Channel'sHow Do They Build That? in August 2022.
The new building includes an array of environmentally friendly features:[29][30]
The California Academy of Sciences green roof has several environmentally friendly features and asustainable design. Renzo Piano was inspired by seven major hills of San Francisco, which typically refers to:Telegraph Hill,Nob Hill,Russian Hill,Rincon Hill,Mount Sutro,Twin Peaks andMount Davidson. The living green roof was planted with 1.7 millionCalifornia native plants. The museum's central piazza lies beneath a massive glass ceiling on the roof, which opens to allow cool night air to flow into the building below; by using this kind ofnatural ventilation instead of air conditioning to regulate interior temperature, the building becomes more energy efficient. Renzo Piano and SWA Group won theAmerican Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Award in design in 2009.[citation needed]
Notable staff members of the academy include:
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