Plan: Fact Sheet

• The Exploratorium has outgrown the Palace of Fine Arts (PFA), its home for the past thirty-nine years. Currently, the museum and its support spaces are separated into various buildings throughout the PFA and the Presidio.


• Piers 15/17 on the Embarcadero allow the Exploratorium to continue its research, outreach, and program of exhibits and education all under one roof.  The pier buildings are large enough to accommodate the museum’s future growth.


• Relocation to Piers 15/17, with its accessibility to public transit, allows the Exploratorium to attract more San Francisco residents and also visitors from outside the Bay Area.


• The Exploratorium plans to house approximately 200,000 square feet of museum and supporting programs at Pier 15. This is a 38 percent increase from our existing facilities.
  
  
• Piers 15/17 were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2006 and are part of the San Francisco Embarcadero National Register Historic District. The Exploratorium will rehabilitate the piers according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitating Historic Building, and will contribute to the ongoing waterfront preservation effort in line with the Ferry Building, Pier 1, and the recent Piers 1½, 3-5 Project.


• The paved infill area between Piers 15 and 17 would undergo a major renovation by the Exploratorium to create a new public plaza with outdoor exhibits designed by the museum.  A large portion of the deck will be peeled away to reveal the Bay hidden below, creating further learning opportunities for visitors.


• As a leader in science education, the Exploratorium believes strongly in the science and ethics of sustainability. The rehabilitation of the existing buildings will allow the opportunity to incorporate new “green” building elements and sustainable practices. The project will meet a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. In short, this project will be both green (and given its access to the water) blue. For more on LEED, go to http://www.usgbc.org/


• The Exploratorium is joining in a public/private partnership with the Port of San Francisco to make a new home on the waterfront a reality.