On April 17, San Francisco will witness the unveiling of the Exploratorium in its brand-new location at Pier 15, just north of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero. At nine acres, the “21st century learning lab” has tripled in size- now occupying the biggest waterfront building to have been constructed in a decade. As described by the Los Angeles Times: “The much-loved institution was founded by physicist Frank Oppenheimer, who believed science intersected with art and should be fun.”
The new venue is expected to draw 1 million paid visitors per year to ogle the 600 exhibits, plus 3 million more to check out the free open-air exhibits in the outdoor plaza. Expect light-filled interiors, a nice gift shop and a café with lovely bay views. With a solar-paneled roof, the Exploratorium aims “to become the world’s biggest net-zero-energy museum.”
TechCrunch hones in on how tech-savvy it is: “Many cities have science museums, but this one has an extra dose of tech cred — its board of directors is headed up by chairman George Cogan, who by day leads Bain & Company’s global technology practice, and also includes other industry luminaries such as Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Google’s third employee and current Khan Academy exec Craig Silverstein, Google’s Jeff Huber, and others.”
Located at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, The Exploratorium is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays and until 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. For more information, visit www.exploratorium.edu.