Science centre a ‘visionary project’

With a sleek, rolling red roof mimicking the Rocky Mountains, Calgary’s new science centre was trumpeted as an evolutionary educational step forward by a parade of dignitaries and project designers at its unveiling yesterday.
“This is an important crossroads in Calgary’s history,” said mayor Dave Bronconnier. “It truly will be a model and a centre, an educational hub of discovery not only for the 300,000 people that surf through, primarily children, but also the adults and parents that accompany them.”
Ground is expected to break this fall on the $160 million New Telus World of Science, which will find its home on a 15-acre parcel of land just north of the Calgary Zoo, a “visionary” project that is expected to revolutionize the way science centres are built in the future and “engage the future workforce that the province of Alberta will need in the coming years,” said project chief officer Bill Peters.
The new 140,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to draw 500,000 people annually, will use storm and recaptured grey water to flush toilets and has been designed with high green standards in mind, said lead architect Alan Collyer.