The new and improved Exploratorium is like no other place on earth. Touch everything, explore, ask questions and lose yourself in displays in the six galleries with mind stretching exhibits. It covers 330,000 square feet and sits in a lustrous $300 million new home with a Ph.D. around every corner to answer your questions and head up the different displays.
With a breathtaking waterfront view of San Francisco Bay and one of the best possible views of the Bay Bridge, the experience is unmatchable.
The Exploratorium’s former home was a rather dark, windowless, dusty venue. The new Exploratorium rises onto an 800-foot-long pier with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the bay. It covers behavioral and environmental sciences along with understandable physics and biology. There are about 600 exhibits available, with about 150 new ones – mostly referring to the natural environment.
One new addition is a fascinating 22-foot-high Tinker’s Clock that runs on windshield wiper motors. You can watch the gears, pulleys, handles, knobs and a gong that hits on the hour. Another is a 336-year-old Douglas fir sliced down the middle so participants can study and count its rings of age.
The 6,000-square-foot glass observatory on the second floor gives an unencumbered view across the bay. Water temperatures, sensors, salinity and currents are documented in real time. An exhibit shows the changes in the shape of the bay over the centuries, 3D topographic images, fog, fault lines and sediment cores.
This is only a small portion of what is available. Kids will wallow in the exhibits and learn. Adults will probably put their iPhones away, forget the apps and enjoy the marvelous simplicity and accuracy around them. Go and visit the Exploratorium. This new offering is really something to behold and enjoy for the whole family.
Opening day: April 17
Where: Pier 15, The Embarcadero, San Francisco
Hours: Tuesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for adults only; Friday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday except for select holidays
Tickets: $25 adults, $19 for students and seniors, free for children under 5.
Details: www.exploratorium.edu
