FIRST YEAR - California Academy of Sciences

It’s been one year since
we opened the doors to our
magnificent new California
Academy of Sciences.
If we were to celebrate with a cake, we’d
need two million candles, because that’s
how many visitors we welcomed in our first
year. This extraordinary facility is bursting
with life, and not just the human variety.
The Academy is home to more than
38,000 live animals. Two thousand fish
swim in our coral reef. on our living roof,
1.7 million native plants are blooming
and growing while they help insulate the
building. Hundreds of billions of stars twinkle
in the planetarium’s sky. one hundred
scientists and educators work to find and
teach the latest scientific breakthroughs.
And let’s not forget those 20 penguins and
one albino alligator!
The California Academy of Sciences is
more than a museum. It’s a living organism—
growing and multiplying and discovering.
Just as the Academy’s glass walls are
transparent—allowing the inside out and
the outside in—we are reaching out into the
community and bringing the excitement of
science to new audiences.
Thanks to more than 3,800 donors to our
successful capital campaign, the magnificent
building is complete. now our challenge
is to fulfill the enormous potential that we
have created here. our mission is clear:
to engage the public in exciting ways, to
educate new generations of science lovers,
and to spread the word about the nature
of life, biodiversity, and sustainability.
We’re growing in all kinds of new directions.
Join us in this continued adventure.
Gregory C. Farrington, Ph.D.,
Executive Director
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