San Francisco has long been a center of progressive thought, but the California Academy of Sciences takes the tech-savvy city to a new level entirely. The academy's brand new building is touted as the greenest museum building in the world, which is true on several levels. When approaching the Renzo Piano-designed structure, the first thing one notices is the "living roof," an undulating, 2.5-acre soil-covered roof planted with native grasses and plants such as wild strawberries. But as picturesque as it may be - it's designed to blend in with nearby hills - the roof has an environmentally advanced purpose: the plants and soil will capture 3.6 million gallons of rainwater each year, preventing storm runoff and providing a home for indigenous fauna. Inside the museum, visitors are treated to an impressive collection of exhibits that bring the natural world to Golden Gate Park. The Philippine coral reef, for example, features the world's deepest interior coral reef ecosystem, with 3,000 exotic fish. Three distinct rainforest galleries, meanwhile, unfold inside a 90-foot diameter dome, where free-flying birds, butterflies, and animals native to Borneo, Madagascar, and Costa Rica eat, sleep, and play in their natural habitats. One of the most popular exhibits from the former academy returns in the new building as well. A subtropical, southern U.S. swamp has turtles, fish, and a white alligator, one of the few to be found in captivity anywhere. He's always happy to smile for the camera. Starwood has a dozen properties in and around San Francisco, including the nearby Le Méridien San Francisco.