California Academy of Sciences

Founded in 1853, the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park is the world’s only institution to combine a natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium, scientific research, and education program. Structural damage to the building during the 1989 earthquake required constructing a new structure. Architect Renzo Piano was asked to create a structure on the same site that reflected the institution’s mission of sustainability. Studio Hinrichs was asked to develop a comprehensive communication program that would keep public interest alive and build membership over the three years that the Academy was closed for construction. The donor wall was created as a stylized specimen drawer, complete with botanical and insect replicas whose rarity indicated the donor level.

The logo design was inspired by Piano’s silhouette of mounds evoking the seven hills of San Francisco on the building’s living roof. The logo interwove the “hills” into a circular pattern, which came to be described as the “fabric of life.”

The transparent glass entrance to Cal Academy provides a view of the logo embedded into the cement of the plaza.

     Newsletters, magazines, and promotional materials were designed to reflect the Academy's mission of exploring the planet, protecting the environment, and conveying the excitement of discovery.

© 2021 Studio Hinrichs