Thinc

Turn an aquarium inside out

A temporary aquarium turned on its head. Designed to house the Academy's living collection during four years of demolition and construction of its new home in Golden Gate Park, this interim facility put the back of the house at the front of the visitor experience and sparked a new tradition of informal conversation and learning among staff and visitors. It created a strong experience with minimal investment by using holding tanks retrofitted with acrylic viewing panels. It provided an essential test bed for strategies planned for the new facility, including facilitated experiences and multidisciplinary exhibits. And it was the proving grounds for the new Academy's Philippine Coral Reef exhibit, the world's deepest and most extensive captive coral colony.

Exhibition Planning and Design

10,000 square feet

Open from 2004-2007

San Francisco, California

A huge collage of words, images, and objects acted as a reminder of the Academy's seven research departments during the four years in which the natural history museum was all but invisible to the public.

The 20,000-gallon coral reef tank provided a home for the Eastern Pacific corals that had been housed at the old Steinhart. Its 18 foot depth and adjustable platforming also offered the opportunity to experiment with lighting and husbandry techniques in water approaching the average depth of the new, 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef exhibit under construction in the new Academy.

Many of the larger tanks in the Transition Aquarium were recycled holding tanks with curved viewing windows installed for public viewing. The nets above the tank kept the visitors out and the fish in, while providing a strong, signature design element illuminated by the light which reflected off the surface of the water. At center is Ssssnake Alley.

Ssssnake Alley gave reptiliophiles an opportunity to be surrounded by the objects of their passion, while reptiliophobes could avoid them entirely. All of the Steinhart's non-venomous snakes moved to the Transition. The venomous snakes were moved to other institutions because the reptiles' extensive holding requirements could not be met in the compact space of the Transition.

Parents always had to lift small children to see into the tanks of the old Steinhart. For the Transition, Thinc brought as many tanks as possible to kid level.

The informality and intimacy of the Transition made it immediately popular with the public; in turn, the public reaction powerfully affected the final design of the new Steinhart.

The California Tidepool Touch Tank was patterned on a blackjack table to give the maximum number of visitors opportunities to come close to the animals, and the volunteer staff and educators the chance to easily observe and interact with visitors. It was a prototype for the larger Touch Tank designed for the new Steinhart.

The arrangement also makes the touch tank a great presentation space. Thinc provided a video projector, screen, and computer hookup so that paid and volunteer staff could create presentations on subjects that visitors would find interesting. Over the four years, the staff developed a wide variety of programs which will continue in the new Steinhart.

To protect the animals while providing great opportunities for visitors to touch them, Thinc designed a variety of clear acrylic trays that hook onto the sides of the tank and hold the animals just below the water. Animals are rotated back into the bottom of the tank, out of reach but still very visible, on a regular basis.

Easy access to the front of tanks made maintenance of the exhibits much easier for staff while providing opportnities to develop a new relationship with the public. The exhibit labels are printed on acetate and attached to pin-registered clipboards. This gave the Academy the chance to experiment with different kinds of interpretation and made the labels easy to update. In the new Steinhart, most labels will be digital.