California Academy of Sciences (Renzo Piano building)

The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1853, occupies a Renzo Piano–designed building in Golden Gate Park that opened in 2008. The contemporary structure replaced earlier museum buildings and is noted for its living green roof, extensive daylighting strategies, and integrated museum, aquarium, and planetarium programs. The site illustrates the replacement of older Beaux-Arts and early-20th-century museum architecture with 21st-century sustainable design in a historic urban park.