This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
EXPLORATORIUM


Marc L’Italien


The Exploratorium has relaunched in its new home, with the aim of


being the largest net zero energy museum in the USA


How did you get involved with the Exploratorium? My first run in with The Exploratorium was as a young architect in 1991 when they sponsored a design charrette with three teams made up of artists, landscape architects and architects. I was on a team with Joseph Esherick, the founder of my firm, and landscape architect George Hargreaves among others.


Why did the museum move? I don’t think founder Frank Oppenheimer ever saw the Palace of Fine Arts as a permanent home. They had long since outgrown their space and could no longer adequately serve visitors or train teachers who teach science in elementary schools.


Can you describe the design? The new home is the renovation of an age- ing pier, where architecture, art, science and site converge. It elevates the muse- um’s mission as both a destination for ex- periential exhibits and a research and de- velopment facility that creates innovative ways to teach and learn. Visibility, public access and flexibility drove the planning and design. The new site brings to life a previously dormant stretch of the historic Embarcadero waterfront – the city’s front porch. The new campus uses Bay water as a basis for many new outdoor exhibits.


How about sustainability? We designed a building that incorporates many energy-efficient elements aimed at producing all its energy needs on site. The 1.3-megawatt photovoltaic array on the


Marc L’Italien, EHDD principal


roof is equivalent to powering 1,000 aver- age US homes over the course of a year. Bay water is brought in and run through a heat exchanger to affect the tempera- ture of a separate closed freshwater loop running through the floor. This second loop contains 40 miles of plastic pipe moving over 73,000 gallons per hour to change the temperature of the space. Fewer overhead ducts were required as a result. All new windows use high-performance triple element glazing to better insulate the building and admit copious amounts of natural light, further reducing reliance on electricity, while 16 per cent of roof run- off is captured in cisterns and sterilised before flushing toilets. What isn’t stored is filtered and returned to the bay.


What was the state of the original pier structure? The pier’s substructure was heavily dam- aged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Our design combined repairs to existing pilings with the insertion of new mega piles at the four corners, connected by a new structural slab poured over the exist- ing floor to knit it together, creating a stiff platform to withstand major tremors. This allowed us to repair just over a third of the existing 15,000 piles. A 1950s service lot built to conjoin the piers was removed to create the new plaza. Pilings were left to mark tide movement and serve as anchor- age for temporary exhibits. The structure is painted a uniform colour to maximise light reflectance, minimise glare and allow it to recede from view. Structure is cele- brated but never steals the show. l


The renovated pier was once occupied by the San Francisco Port of Embarkation


From Attractions Management Issue 3 2013 u Read this, and all of our back issues at: www.attractionsmanagement.com/archive


166 Attractions Handbook 2014-2015


www.attractionshandbook.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262  |  Page 263  |  Page 264  |  Page 265  |  Page 266  |  Page 267  |  Page 268  |  Page 269  |  Page 270  |  Page 271  |  Page 272  |  Page 273  |  Page 274  |  Page 275  |  Page 276  |  Page 277  |  Page 278  |  Page 279  |  Page 280  |  Page 281  |  Page 282  |  Page 283  |  Page 284  |  Page 285  |  Page 286