I visited California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco last weekend on an architecture field trip. This museum was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and completed in 2008. Prior to the trip, we were introduced by our instructor images of the building's rectangular form and hemispherical extrusions on the flat roof, which serve as a roof garden. According to Renzo Piano's official website(http://rpbw.r.ui-pro.com/), the primary goal of the building is to provide a modern facility for exhibition, education, conservation, and research under one roof according to sustainable design strategies. Sinse the ecological roof was so unique and somewhat futuristic in form, I expected the interior to be as innovative as well. 
However, what I encountered in the hallways were a series of extremely simple Greek columns, not even Doric, with plain capitals. They seemed to respond to the thinner steel columns across the corridor. I became curious of the architect's intention of inserting those Greek columns in a museum dedicated to science and ecology that appears to have little relations with Greek architecture.
Perhaps the Greek columns contributes to the monumentality of the building in the interior, while the half-domes on the roof create a unique form in the exterior. Or maybe they are a reminder of the past, the origin of science and technology, and showing a connection to the exhibitions that are mainly related to nature, such as a rain forest, aquarium, and planitarium.
images from top:http://static.zooomr.com/images/3682814_bd83f628d5.jpg
