The Design 100

Renzo Piano's vision for the California Academy of Sciences' new home was to metaphorically lift a piece of land and place the museum underneath. The remarkable new facility—which houses a planetarium, an aquarium, a natural-history museum and a rain forest and is expected to attain leed platinum status—sits under a 2.5-acre (1 hectare) living roof. Unlike traditional museums, the building is encased by glass walls, allowing light to stream into more than 90% of regularly occupied spaces and creating a sense of fusion with the surrounding park.

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