Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/california-science-center-moves-to-a-green-home Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1916, has a new home in a modern, energy-efficient building in San Francisco, aimed at raising public awareness of the natural world. Spencer Michels explores the unconventional museum amd the challenges of the move. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Next, a new life and a new home for a California museum. NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels has our Science Unit report. A version of this story will air on "KQED Quest." SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour Correspondent: How do you move 18 African penguins who have been living happily for four years in temporary quarters in downtown San Francisco to a new home across town? The answer is: carefully.And that goes for the 20 million other specimens — living and dead — which make up the rare collection of the California Academy of Sciences.Originally, the academy's purpose was pure research. But then, according to staff biologist Bob Drewes, the public was invited in.BOB DREWES, Herpetologist, California Academy of Sciences: It was founded during the Gold Rush by a bunch of wealthy San Franciscans to sort of serve as a Smithsonian of the West Coast. SPENCER MICHELS: It became a museum in 1916. And its new building in Golden Gate Park quickly became a great favorite locally, predating flashier and newer museums and aquariums. But major earthquake damage made it necessary to reconstruct the building from the bottom up.These time-lapse photos were taken over the four years it took to build the $500 million, four-acre palace designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.