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The Exploratorium is an internationally recognized museum with hundreds of exhibits providing access to and information about science, nature, art, human perception, and technology. The Exploratorium has outgrown its home at the Palace of Fine Arts. We are excited to be working with the Port of San Francisco toward a move to Piers 15/17 along San Francisco's Embarcadero. By relocating to Piers 15/17, the Exploratorium will be able to serve more residents and visitors at the museum, thanks to the piers' close proximity to public transportation and other San Francisco landmarks. Our new home will be renovated to preserve the historic fabric of the San Francisco waterfront. The Pier 15 shed will be refurbished and the connector building replaced with an Observatory building. They will house the Exploratorium's public exhibitions, classrooms, programs, a restaurant and café, a museum store, a national center for teacher development, event space, exhibit-fabrication space, and ancillary offices. There's a valley between the two piers, which currently serves as a paved parking area. In honor of our new marine location on the bay, much of that valley will be peeled back to expose the water below it, and to add a courtyard and outdoor exhibit area. As a testament to the Exploratorium’s educational impact and popularity, the museum has undergone several expansions at the Palace of Fine Arts since the Exploratorium was founded in 1969. In 1980, cramped for space by its growing collection of exhibits, the museum built a mezzanine level within the exhibition hall. In 1999, under the directorship of French physicist and science educator Goéry Delacôte, the Exploratorium expanded into administrative facilities at the nearby Presidio National Park to accommodate the creation of new exhibit sections—including life sciences, seeing, and listening—inside the museum. Through all these changes and in our future home at Piers 15/17, the mission of the Exploratorium remains unchanged. In the prophetic words of the Exploratorium’s brilliant founder, physicist and educator Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, “Explaining science and technology without props is a lot like teaching someone to swim without ever letting them near the water.” Now we’ll not only be nearer to the water, but literally on the waterfront. What an excellent opportunity to expand the public’s knowledge about the world around them, including water and what happens at the intersection of natural and built environments. I hope that you will find this Web site informative and I welcome your interest in in our project. Sincerely,
Dr. Dennis Bartels
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