FortWhyte gets new visitor centre, connection to Winnipeg Transit service

A popular nature centre and educational facility in Winnipeg is now accessible via public transit for the first time ever as a new and long-awaited visitor centre has opened.

FortWhyte Alive's new Buffalo Crossing facility officially opened on Wednesday. The new two-storey, 18,000-square-foot multipurpose building sits on a four-hectare site and will become the "southern gateway" to the property, FortWhyte Alive said in a news release.

Shovels first hit the ground on the site of the new building in October 2022.

FortWhyte Alive CEO Liz Wilson said Wednesday the project has been more than 10 years in the making from its initial conception, adding that the design process alone took about three years.

"It has been a big dream," she said. "It's been a lot of effort on … all of our staff and our volunteer side. Everyone's been really chomping at the bit to get this completed and open."

According to FortWhyte, the Buffalo Crossing facility is the province's first commercial building certified to the passive house standard — meaning it was constructed using a set of international design principles and standards that allow up to 90 per cent less energy to be used for heating and cooling than conventional buildings — as well as the zero-carbon building standard.

"We were really almost like guinea pigs — we were learning how to do this together," Wilson said. "We knew what we wanted it to be, and then it was a matter of [the design team] trying to figure out how do we actually do this."

The structure is "incredibly tight" to protect it from cold drafts, said Wilson. Its walls provide more than 30 centimetres of insulation, and the building uses fossil-free geothermal heating and cooling.

"The building has been nominated for some international awards in terms of design," she said. "Now that we're open, we're hoping that just expands … the level of interest that we're getting in terms of how we did this in our climate here in Manitoba."

The building's opening also marks the first time that FortWhyte has ever been accessible via public transit.

Winnipeg Transit has lifted a detour on routes 649 Chevrier and 650 McGillvray, so visitors can bus directly to the nature centre.

The city approved transit service to Buffalo Crossing last fall. It also introduced new traffic lights at Brady Road and McGillivray Boulevard, in front of the building, in the summer.

The visitor centre is officially named in the memory of Paul Albrechtsen, whose philanthropy helped generations of Manitoba students overcome financial barriers to nature-based learning, FortWhyte said.