Wanuskewin renovation includes state-of-the-art playground, new exhibits

SASKATOON Official designs of Wanuskewin Heritage Park’s transformation under the Thundering Campaign have been released as construction gets well underway.

Construction crews have already started work on the north expansion of the interpretive centre and will continue work throughout the rest of the building during the next year and a half. Though the park will not be closing its doors during this time, there may be portions of the building that will be unavailable to guests while these renovations are underway.

Along with the rendering of the building, Karen Hunter, project manager for Wanuskewin Heritage Park, presented videos showing the plans for a new state-of-theart playground on the site as well as the placement of new exhibit galleries throughout the centre — a massive expansion she says she is most excited to see come to life.

“Bringing back the exhibits is a huge piece,” she explains. “We’ve had exhibits before but not to the extent we would like to have here. So bringing that back is a huge component — being able to tell the stories and have programming with our visitor services staff so that people can learn about Indigenous people that have been here for 6,400 plus years.”

These new exhibits include interactive exhibits, archeological finds from the site, language posts and an elder welcome exhibit where guests can sit, listen and learn.

The campaign is also dedicated to maintaining the original vision for the park — which means maintaining the distinct architectural style of the interpretive centre through the addition of another 15,000 square feet of space. To ensure this, Wanuskewin has brought back the original architecture and design firms that worked on the centre 25 years ago.

“All of the architecture is being designed to match the current architecture,” Hunter explained. “So we’re hoping that it won’t look like it’s had a great big expansion but yet it will look like we’ve just made it more full.”

The original $40 million goal set for the Thundering Ahead campaign has been surpassed, Hunter said, though she notes that they have extended the goal to accommodate more projects that they initially thought they wouldn’t be able to afford.

The majority of the renovations and updates to the park — including the initial introduction of the bison herd — is expected to be complete by the spring of 2020.