Wascana Park

Interpretive Panel:
Jewel of the City Wascana Centre

(Click on a picture for larger view)

The formal recreation of Wascana Centre began when the University of Saskatchewan decided to expand. Regina College, which had become a junior college of the University in 1925, matured into a second full campus. It became apparent to the University in 1959 that the Regina College site was inadequate and that another location for the new campus would have to be found. A more suitable one, it was quickly determined, was a parcel of land on Wascana Lake south- east of the Broad Street Bridge. The provincial government owned the property, but had leased it to the federal government for an experimental farm. Now, it was agreed, that land would become a university campus. The University and the provincial government then came to another and more far-reaching decision; to prepare a comprehensive plan for the joint management and development of all the land surrounding Wascana Lake.

Wascana Centre is the geographical area encompassing approximately 930 hectares (2300 acres), of which 120 hectares (300 acres) are water. Located in the heart of the city, it is one of the largest urban parks in North America. Within the boundaries of this green oasis are found the University of Regina, Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, the capital precint of the Government of Saskatchewan, a rehabilitation centre, numerous parks, and at the top of the list Wascana Lake. It houses the joe moran and Mackemzie Art Galleries, the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts, the Kramer IMAX Theatre, the Saskatchewan Science Centre, a marina and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Wascana Centre is the cultural, re recreational and educational hub of Regina. That task was entrusted to two American planners: Minoru Yamasaki an architect and Thomas D. Church a landscape architect. The appointment of Yamasaki was vital to the development of Wascana Centre-two months earlier he had been named master planner for Regina's new university campus. Thus Wascana Centre and what is now the University of Regina were created hand-in-hand. The master plan of "Yama" and "Tommy" contained one continual thread throughout; that is that the structures and landscape will be for "people."