Layers of Growth and Decay
San Francisco's Exploratorium once occupied the Palace of Fine Arts, a grand but temporary structure from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Designed to be dismantled after the fair, the building persisted. In fact, it weathered decades of cumulative dilapidation and, remarkably, went on to host the Exploratorium for over 40 years. But while the Exploratorium blossomed inside its aging shell, the Palace itself apparently continued its decline, until the Exploratorium finally relocated in 2013, just two years shy of the building's centennial. I've always been drawn to San Francisco's personality from afar, until this fall I finally experienced that novel charisma for myself alongside family and colleagues . T he interplay of growth and decay is palpable throughout a city layered in rich history and innovation. That same relationship animates the Exploratorium's new form. Now settled in San Francisco's Piers 15 and 17, the science center hosts a ...
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