The sustainable new home for the California Academy of Sciences will open its many doors on the 27th of September after nearly a decade of planning and the largest cultural fundraising effort in San Francisco history.

The Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in collaboration with local firm Stantec Architecture worked with the Academy to create a design that unifies the Academy’s original array of twelve buildings built between 1916 and 1991, into a single modern landmark. Covering 410,000 sq ft, the institution will be the unified home to the Steinhart Aquarium, the Morrison Planetarium, the Kimball Natural History Museum and research and education programs.