About The Exploratorium

Location: San Francisco, California
Developer: Wilson Meany
Designers: EHDD Architecture, GLS Landscape/Architecture
Size: 330,000 square feet

The Exploratorium is an internationally renowned museum of science, art and human perception that reopened on April 17, 2013, with a 66-year ground lease from the Port of San Francisco for their new 330,000 square feet indoor and outdoor campus at Pier 15 on the San Francisco waterfront, three times larger than its original Palace of Fine Arts location. The environmentally-friendly design incorporates a bay water heating and cooling system, rooftop photovoltaic arrays, rainwater collection, and high-performance windows and glass to achieve net zero energy goal. It features a public plaza on the Embarcadero, public lobby with a Bay History Walk, waterfront promenade, outdoor exhibits, café, and Exploratorium store. The museum includes six main galleries, 200-seat theater, life sciences laboratory, wired classrooms and labs, and machine, wood, and electronics shops.

The Exploratorium’s new home provides a historic rehabilitation of the dilapidated Piers 15-17, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the San Francisco Embarcadero National Register Historic District. The final result of this new facility is a unique, certified LEED Platinum facility that is expected to draw more tourists to the area between the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf than ever before.