California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Bess Adler / Thornton Tomasetti (left) and courtesy Wikimedia Foundation (right).
California Academy of Sciences
Overview
Thornton Tomasetti provided LEED consulting for the new California Academy of Sciences (CAS) building. Located in Golden Gate Park, the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EB:OM) Platinum-certified building features a biodiversity research center, a natural history museum, an aquarium, a planetarium, and a living roof, and houses collections rooms containing more than 20 million natural history specimens.
The building consists of three above-ground stories and two below-ground levels, and totals approximately 400,000 square feet, with 100,000 square feet of public space. CAS features many sustainable operations and maintenance practices including purchasing for janitorial supplies, ongoing consumables, and food and beverages, as well as waste management. In addition, CAS provides educational resources to 1.7 million visitors annually on topics ranging from wildlands conservation to recycling at home.
Thornton Tomasetti staff managed the LEED EBOM certification process for the project, a building was previously certified under the LEED for New Construction. This process included fine-tuning the design to better enable sustainable operations and maintenance practices.
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