BCV’s design of the three retail gift stores in Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences building is envisioned as an integral part of the Academy experience, allowing visitors to “take a piece of the Academy home.” Each store extends themes established in the larger building, including its connection to the ecosystem of Golden Gate Park, while creating a distinct identity for its collection and audience.

The retail spaces include The Academy Store at the main entrance, The Lab Junior adjacent to the Planetarium, and The Swamp Store on the mezzanine level of the Steinhart Aquarium. Each store is unique while sharing a common aesthetic that connects the retail experience to the Academy and its surroundings.

The casework throughout all three stores reinterprets the traditional wood-paneled natural history library as a dynamic system of display boxes in varying widths and depths, creating a Mondrian-like composition. The boxes are crafted from 17 species of trees that grow in Golden Gate Park, using locally salvaged wood. Informational labels connect the material to the surrounding urban forest, making the wood itself part of the visitor experience.

Historic elements and artifacts are woven throughout the stores, reinforcing the Academy’s legacy of research and discovery. The Academy Store features a curved, illuminated blue gum vault and an original library table with deep institutional history, while historic photographs and artifacts are integrated into the casework. At Lab Junior, a sculptural wooden light armature inspired by the adjacent whale skeleton is paired with giraffe mounts from the original museum, a central “lab table” of specimen vitrines, and salvaged tiles from the original aquarium. At The Swamp Store, salvaged building tiles and restored bronze aquarium doors are paired with new recycled glass tiles, while bronze turtles and fish from the original doors become part of the store’s central chandelier.

Together, these elements create retail environments that are distinctly of the Academy: contemporary yet rooted in its history, connected to Golden Gate Park, and designed to extend the experience of discovery beyond the museum itself.