Crowds pack new Academy of Sciences
The stunning new Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden
Gate Park opened last weekend.
We’ve been looking forward to a visit since it closed several
years ago, but we opted not to pay an opening weekend visit. We
anticipated that things might get a little crowded.
But I never would have anticipated the intensity of first-day
frenzy. Lines stretched more than a mile. Visitors were metered by
staff who allowed just 500 per half hour. At day’s end, more than
17,000 had passed through the turnstiles.
Crowds pack new Academy of Sciences
The stunning new Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park opened last weekend.
We’ve been looking forward to a visit since it closed several years ago, but we opted not to pay an opening weekend visit. We anticipated that things might get a little crowded.
But I never would have anticipated the intensity of first-day frenzy. Lines stretched more than a mile. Visitors were metered by staff who allowed just 500 per half hour. At day’s end, more than 17,000 had passed through the turnstiles.
What’s the fuss? The old academy, the one we grew up with, was about science the old way. Dead animals were mounted inside glass cases. Visitors once tried to land pennies on the backs of live crocodiles and alligators that lived in a pit in the entry foyer. A chunk of moon rock held a place of honor.
It was science separated from the public, a passive experience. Newer exhibits invited people to interact with their surroundings. They could step on a machine that simulated earthquakes. Displays by “Far Side” creator Gary Larson invited looks at nature from a decidedly different perspective.
The new academy, by all accounts, is bursting with life from its living meadow of a roof to its basement. A tropical rainforest sings with the songs of live birds and pulses to the wingbeats of butterflies.
An enormous tank holds a living coral reef. Nearby a colony of penguins carries on.
The new Academy of Sciences was four years in the making, the child of architect Renzo Piano. His innovative living roof attracted visitors to an elevator that led to a viewing platform overlooking a landscape punctuated by skylights.
The $488 million project opened with all the fanfare and speechmaking that should accompany the opening of a $488 million anything.
I’m inclined to consume nature in a more low-key fashion, at least until the crowds die down.
On opening day we watched three sailboat races unfold on Monterey Bay from ringside seats on the beach. We did some casual birding and took a quick trip into the water.
Crowds were absent, happy children were abundant and we gladly skipped lines and entrance fees for our experience. After a day like last Saturday, the academy can just wait a while.
In other news
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that endangered leatherback turtles are reappearing on the California coast, feasting on jellyfish. Not much is known about the turtle’s habits, but a Moss Landing-based researcher is endeavoring to learn more.
The giant turtles were nowhere to be found off the coast just two years ago, and their return is thought to be connected to an abundant supply of their favorite food – sea nettles.
The turtles hatch in Indonesia before coming to the Pacific coast. Egg hunting, habitat loss due to rising sea levels and long-line fishing have all contributed to reduction in numbers, the Chronicle reported.
The crew of the research vessel David Starr Jordan has been attaching temporary tracking devices to better understand the turtles’ behavior and habits, so soon, all of us should know more about the animals that have been crossing oceans for the last 100 million years.
