The Exploratorium Waterfront Project officially kicked off Tuesday morning at a very festive groundbreaking ceremony on Piers 15 and 17, the museum’s future home. The $300 million project will shift the internationally acclaimed museum of science, art and human perception to the heart of San Francisco’s waterfront, revitalizing the city’s decrepit piers along the museum’s new nine-acre campus. Designed by San Francisco-based EHDD Architecture (which was recently commissioned to partner in SFMOMA’s expansion), the museum will also be green through and through, and may become the world’s first net-zero energy science museum in the world.

The list of special features goes on and on: the museum will use the bay’s water for heating and cooling, it will have a special Webcast Studio, and, most important, 19 different carpet colors.

The new Exploratorium, slated for 2013, will bring together the worlds of sea and land to triple the museum’s capacity for teacher development and provide 900 jobs over the two years of its construction. Private donors have already raised $209 million for the project.

Needless to say, the unveiling of this behemoth project was quite a show.

At about 10:30 a.m., the assembly of some 200 press, politicians and Exploratorium employees was ushered onto the pier’s outdoor platform, where they were greeted by the Green Street Mortuary Brass Band band playing a catchy jazz tune. The music was followed by the sound of heavy breathing magnified by large speakers — a diver was underwater retrieving a “surprise.” As a barge then lifted a large, iron 'O' from the depths of the bay, the band began playing Darth Vader’s Imperial March. The  ‘O’ became part of the Exploratorium sign, representing the project’s goals of accessibility and visibility.

“The public will be able to access the piers again,” said George Cogan, chairman of the Exploratorium’s Board of Directors. “We will be able to interact directly with nature and the man-made world,” he said. Cogan emphasized that the museum would not just be a center for kids, but extend to adults and the underserved communities of the Bay Area.

“It’s like our coming out party, we are coming out into the light,” said Dennis Bartels, executive director of the Exploratorium, who said that the museum’s previous location in the “dark, precious cave” of the Palace of Fine Arts had not allowed them to interact much with nature. “Instead of taking nature and reducing it to tabletop size, we get to play outside,” Bartels said.

The dredging into the murky depths of the bay has already begun.

Correction: The band playing at the ground breaking was the Green Street Mortuary Brass Band, not the San Francisco Police Band as initially reported.