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An Apollonaut travel guide
A museum on the Embarcadero.
An introduction to San Francisco’s waterfront, where the Exploratorium stands on Pier 15 between Pier 39 and the Ferry Building.
On this page
Read the city from the waterfront
The Exploratorium is on Pier 15, where the Embarcadero meets Green Street. The Ferry Building is a short walk south, and Pier 39 a short stroll north.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how the numbered piers line the shore, and how the city rises behind them.
Steel, concrete and glass
The museum fills two historic piers, adapted by the architects EHDD, with the Bay Observatory as the only new building on the site.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you how a pier was built over the water, or the conditions in which people worked.
A museum chapter
The Exploratorium shows one side of today’s San Francisco: a waterfront of old cargo piers given new public lives.
Look at the meeting of the two: a working port’s architecture, and a museum where visitors are invited to experiment.
Make room for context
Pair this city reading with the museum’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
