More than 640,000 visitors have wandered below the undulating, wildflower-adorned roof of the California Academy of Sciences since the $488-million museum opened Sept. 27,2008 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Replacing a neoclassical building damaged in the 1989 earthquake, the dazzling, light-filled structure by Renzo Piano has been lauded by architecture critics and awarded the highest "platinum" rating by the U.S. Green Building Council for its cutting-edge, energy-saving features.

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The museum's tiered rainforest with butterflies that flit about your head, its walk-through aquarium, its Galapagos and Madagascar exhibits, and its 38,000 live animals, from neon-hued geckos to African penguins--altogether, it is a 412,000-square-foot natural history extravaganza. But for all its theatricality, what makes the academy even more unusual is its uncompromising stance on climate change. This is a museum with a point of view.

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Wolfe was among the country's top mural companies commissioned to be part of the interior renovations, which included The Early Explorers Center, as well as the African Wing.  Although Wolfe and his team had to follow "strict design guidelines" as dictated by the museum's managing firm, the final result became the fancifully beautiful backdrops for the special exhibits designed for infants, preschoolers and their caregivers.reschoolers, and their caregivers.