Rouge National Urban Park (RNUP), located roughly 25 kilometers east of Toronto’s city centre, is the first park in Canada to receive the “National Urban Park” designation. 23 times the size of Central Park in New York City, RNUP is a corridor of green space that connects to the greenbelt surrounding the Greater Toronto Area, along the Niagara escarpment, all the way through to the Bruce Peninsula. The RNUP Visitor, Learning, and Community Centre will serve as the park’s primary facility where visitors can learn about the Rouge’s natural, cultural, and agricultural heritage.

The history of the Rouge has deep ties to Indigenous heritage and as such, the design process included iterative workshops facilitated by Parks Canada with the First Nations Advisory Circle (FNAC), which includes ten Indigenous communities. The practice of cultivation is also of great significance to the park, where Indigenous people have been farming the land for over 10,000 years as the soil is some of the rarest in the country.

A central theme of restoration was collectively established with the Parks Canada Agency (PCA) to help guide a unified design narrative. The implementation of this theme is multifaceted; visitors will have the opportunity to restore and learn of the natural environment itself, restore and celebrate the many stories and voices of the land, restore and strengthen a sense of community, and ultimately, restore mind, body, and spirit through reflection, movement, and food. Restoration as a theme will not be stuck in nostalgia, but will draw inspiration from the past to imagine the future. The objective is to create a place for visitors, as individuals and as a collective, to freely foster new connections to their environment, with other fellow visitors, and themselves.

The building is a single storey structure, divided symmetrically into three wings – the Welcome Wing, the Food Wing, and the Learning Wing. The placement of these wings will help define three highly distinct outdoor spaces, each with its own unique function and landscaping character to correspond to one of the restoration themes.

Acknowledging the significance of solar orientation and of its strong influence in Indigenous communities and to the Farmers of the Rouge, the Food Wing is aligned true North. Next, the Welcome Wing tilts west, creating a distinct entrance which brings in visitors as they approach from the Parking Allee. The exterior Restoration Plaza will help orientate visitors to the building and to other features of the park. This space will also acknowledge Indigenous presence and serve as an introduction to the overarching restoration theme.

The Learning Wing helps define a more intimate outdoor space to the north of the building, enclosed by the existing forest edge. Rich in landscaping, this space, called Participation Garden, will host educational events and offerings, as well as smaller and more private and bookable events. As one of the only areas of the site that was not transformed by the addition of fill material during the 1960’s, this garden will celebrate the park’s vast history. Visitors will be able to exchange and reflect on PCA’s mission to protect and restore precarious ecosystems, in the hopes to inspire new stewards of the park. The visitor experience team intends to populate the garden with plinths and animal sculptures, as well as a stewards wall.

Finally, between the Learning and Food Wing, is the Food Terrace. A paved and gravel platform that is partially covered by both tree canopy and structure, this space will support outdoor programming of larger groups centred around nourishment and exchange. The intention was to create an experience where landscape and architecture enriched one another, and to be at times, indistinguishable.

Tying these interior and exterior spaces together is the central meeting place, where the three wings converge in the core of the building. This multipurpose area is the primary focus of Rouge Visitor Centre, designed to support a wide variety of programs and visitor experiences. This raised height space serves as an inviting entranceway, celebrated by a central skylight directly overtop, bringing ample amounts of daylight into the building’s middle. This is anticipated to be a highly sought after venue; rentable for events such as dining parties, weddings, and other formal occasions. Moveable partitions to allow for the creation of segmented, more intimate, smaller spaces, such as a learning room off of the central area, which can be closed off for smaller cultural events, conferences, lectures, meetings, and presentations. Near to this space is the supporting cafeteria and food services, where catering is available for Parks Canada offices. A bar window functions as a takeout counter for a food vendor.