A teaching aquarium known as the “crown jewel of Manhattan beach.”
The Roundhouse Aquarium opened in 1981 under the management of Oceanographic Testing Stations, Inc. The Aquarium, known as the “crown jewel of Manhattan beach,” educates over 300,000 guests each year and features tide pools, interactive play tanks, hands-on interactive exhibits with marine life and Southern California habitats, as well as oceanic and freshwater tanks and a wrap-around touch tank.
Revitalization of the facility within the Pier Roundhouse included design of temporary facilities for housing aquarium animals, exhibit and classroom space, teaching station/lab space, tanks with support space and equipment, amenities and back of house spaces. Altieri worked with CambridgeSeven and Nonzero\ Architecture to provide MEPF engineering design services. Altieri’s designs for aquaria are driven by rigorous conditions necessary to maintain healthy ecosystem(s) and ensure visitor comfort. Key elements of such programs and their influence on systems requirements include: harsh environments, high cooling load to account for Life Support System heart rejection and tank water cooling, need for redundancy, odor control, high energy usage, and need for humidity control.
