California Academy of Science

California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr
San Francisco
CA 94118
USA

Open Monday-Satturday 9.30-17, Sunday 11am-5pm, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas day

Entrance fee 

• Adult 46,- Dollars
• Child 36,- Dollars

Annual card 

• Adult 159,- dollars
• Family* 279,- dollars

*Family cards are valid for 2 adults in the same household and theire children

There are several daily feeding shows, for the time please ask at the till station.


Historic time line

• 1853: The California Academy of Natural Sciences is founded on April 4th, when seven men meet in a Montgomery Street office. They propose to undertake "a thorough systematic survey of every portion of the State and the collection of a cabinet of her rare and rich productions."
• 1863: Josiah D. Whitney, State Geologist and President of the Academy, heads the California State Geological Survey. The survey’s purpose is to document natural resources for future economic development. A field party names the state’s highest mountain peak Mount Whitney in honor of their chief.
• 1874: Crowded by growing collections and visitors, the Academy moves into a building on the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant Avenue). A woolly mammoth exhibit is part of a natural history collection purchased for the Academy by Charles Crocker and Leland Stanford. Annual attendance grows to 80,000 visitors.
• 1891: Two years after laying the cornerstone, the Academy opens a new museum on Market Street, between 4th and 5th Streets.
• 1896: Always a hub for lively discourse, the Academy attracts scientists from the University of California and Stanford. An Academy tradition of academic collaboration begins when David Starr Jordan, a world-renowned ichthyologist and first president of Stanford University, is elected President of the Academy.
• 1906: “I got down to the Academy at about 7 A.M. and found the bridge connecting the two buildings gone and the museum stairs badly wrecked. I managed to climb up to the top floor … when Miss Hyde came to my aid. Together we saved all the records ...  Meanwhile the fires started by the earthquake were closing in on the Academy.” —Academy Director Leverett Mills Loomis
• 1909: Already, preparations are underway for building a new Academy museum in Golden Gate Park. The park promises a safe location for priceless scientific collections, removed from the threat of fire should another major earthquake occur.
• 1916: As a new, state-of-the-art museum in Golden Gate Park is dedicated, Director Barton Warren Evermann emphasizes that education is an important function of the Academy. The director often joins school groups to explain various exhibits. Creating new science education programs for Bay Area schools and the public is a high priority.
• 1923: At last! After many years of planning, research, and travel to ensure “the best” for San Franciscans, the magnificent Steinhart aquarium opens to the public.
• 1932: Templeton Crocker funds an expedition to the Galápagos aboard his yacht, Zaca. Academy scientists will bring back 331 live specimens for display and study at Steinhart Aquarium.
• 1934: Dedicated on December 3, the Academy’s Simson African Hall is open to the public two days a week. Visitors throng to see the magnificent animals of faraway Africa in artfully realistic habitats. As the Great Depression deepens, Academy programs struggle. Good homes must be found for the marine mammals when the outdoor pools close due to budget cuts.
• 1950: Embracing television as a promising new medium for teaching science, the Academy begins producing its own weekly TV program. Science in Action features Steinhart Aquarium’s director, Earl Herald, with guest scientists. The popular educational program remains on the air for 16 years—a generation grew up with it!
• 1952: After World War II, plans for a new planetarium looked bleak: Carl Zeiss Optics in Germany, the only source for planetarium projectors, is now behind the Iron Curtain. Undaunted, skilled Academy Instrument Shop technicians and a small group of amateur astronomers construct a unique and excellent star projector for San Francisco.
• 1982: Innovations such as computers, DNA sequencing, and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) offer scientists new insight and understanding. Data are gathered, processed, and shared rapidly. These are critical advantages as dwindling biodiversity brings new urgency to the Academy mission: to explore and explain the natural world.
• 1989: Over time, the wear and tear caused by more than 100 million visitors took its toll on the Academy's buildings in Golden Gate Park, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake delivered a particularly powerful blow. The quake causes the Academy to close Bird Hall permanently and reevaluate the safety, purpose, and functionality of its other buildings.
• 2003: As the Academy celebrates its 150th anniversary, it also prepares to move out of Golden Gate Park and into a temporary home in downtown San Francisco while a new facility is built on the site of the original. In addition to a public aquarium, the transition site at 875 Howard Street offers the opportunity to test new ideas for exhibits, educational programs, and other visitor services for the next four years.
• 2005: Construction begins on a new Academy designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano to serve as a physical and conceptual extension of the Academy's mission to explore, explain, and sustain life. Bringing the aquarium, planetarium, and natural history museum together under one living roof, it replaces 12 well-worn and earthquake-damaged structures with one state-of-the-art facility. Two exterior walls from the original African Hall remain, forming the northeastern corner of the new building.
• 2007: Academy staff pack up their offices—along with 20 million research specimens and 38,000 live animals—for the move back to Golden Gate Park. Meanwhile, a four-story rainforest is coming to life, the finishing touches are being put on the world’s largest all-digital planetarium, and new exhibits are taking shape.
• 2008: On September 27, the doors to the new Academy open to the public. Earning double LEED Platinum ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainable design and operations, the structure also occupies a smaller footprint, giving an acre of open space back to Golden Gate Park.