EcoFactor: The California Academy of Sciences becomes the greenest building in the vicinity.

The newly renovated California Academy of Sciences, which is due to open on the 27th of September, may be as big a tourist attraction as it is an institution of education. Designed by Renzo Piano, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998 as well as the AIA gold medal and The Sonning Prize, the joining of all the various buildings in the academy has taken 10 long years to complete and cost about $500 million! But the building is almost completely self-sustaining and has even been crowned a LEED Platinum building, thus the money spent on it will definitely save the building from high annual maintenance costs.

The building is covered by a “living roof,” which is a 2.5 acre canopy of plants and wildflowers indigenous to California as well as housing 60,000 photo-voltaic cells. The Academy also boasts a NASA-sponsored planetarium, an aquarium, a natural history museum and an indoor rainforest complete with live animals and fish.

The Dark ide: It’s very difficult to criticize an undertaking like this, for it’s a brilliant idea as well as useful for the environment. My only concern would be to the health and maintenance of the animals and their treatment inside the building’s walls. I’m not sure taking more endangered species out of the wild is in the best interest of the environment.

Via: Luxury Insider324415