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The California Academy of Sciences is working with architect Renzo Piano to design a LEED ™ platinum facility in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Housing a planetarium, an aquarium, and 410,000 sf of museum space, the $429-million project will be the fourth-largest natural history museum in the United States. Designed to be the most environmentally sensitive building in the city, the museum, research and education facility will feature a "living roof" made of 1.7 million native California plants that will function as part of the ventilation system and reduce water runoff by 50 percent, saving up to 2 million gallons per year. Photovoltaic solar cells will provide approximately 5 percent of the building's energy needs.

In the demolition of the 12 buildings that comprised the Academy's previous facility, all materials were recycled, with 9,000 tons of concrete supplied for road building in neighboring Richmond, Calif. It is estimated that LEED ™-related sustainable design costs are under one percent of the project budget. The facility is slated to open in 2008.