Plans of a new and greatly improved science museum in Miami have just been unveiled. It is going to be the new downtown home to the city’s incredibly green science museum/planetarium/aquarium. This new building is destined to be four times larger than the existing facility and jam-filled with digital technology. And for $275 million I should hope that it is an incredible organic demonstration of green-building principles, and will work perfectly with with our steamy climate and unique ecology.

The building with have solar energy collected in photovoltaic cells, and rainwater recycled for use in the museum. The rain will flow through the building, triggering turbines and other gadgets and mechanisms. A scientist-in-training’s fantasy come true!

“The building, with its focus on sustainability, will be an exhibit in its own right,” said museum director Gillian Thomas in an interview with the Miami Herald. “We wanted this very strong sunshine, wind and water experience… Indoor galleries will house, among other features, the hands-on kids’ exhibits for which the museum is known, traveling science shows and a satellite of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.”

The aquarium will boast a dazzling cone-shaped tank that will measure 100 feet across at the top. Designed by Thinc of New York, you will be able to fully take advantage of the beautiful Miami landscape and climate while viewing through the tank from the bottom up to the skies above.

Around the tank you will follow a spiral ramp that leads indoors, then out, then in, then out… You will travel from the stars of the Cosmos, through the humid Florida wetlands to the chilly bottom of the Gulf Stream.

Unfortunately we all have to wait till at least 2014 (and that is not in Miami time) to view this incredible attraction.

Via Miami Herald