The two-storey visitor centre on Banff Avenue in Alberta’s Banff National Park will soon be transformed to better reflect the area’s international reputation and natural landscape. Its revitalization is part of a redevelopment project of the town’s main street.Supplied/Parks Canada
A new visitor centre and community space will soon be built to better reflect the natural beauty and internationally acclaimed reputation of Banff National Park in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.
The proposed reimagination of the visitor centre – located in the town’s core within the national park – is expected to anchor the municipality’s 200-block redevelopment of Banff Avenue, the area’s commercial main street. Alongside an upgraded visitor centre, the project will transform 10 other adjacent lots on Banff Avenue into one integrated public space.
“The existing visitor centre is one of the only places on Banff Avenue with clear views of Mount Rundle and the surrounding mountains,” says Daniella Rubeling, Parks Canada’s acting field unit superintendent in Banff and project lead for the Banff Avenue redevelopment. “This project presents an opportunity to better connect people to the national park surrounding them.”
The project comes at a time when Banff National Park is seeing a rise in visitors. In the 2025-26 fiscal year, the Alberta national park broke its annual visitation record at 4.5 million – a 7.14-per-cent increase from one year prior.
Modernizing a historic national park
Since Banff National Park was established in 1885, it has welcomed visitors from across Canada and the globe. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, tourism is integral to its identity and the region’s economy, which is why preserving and maintaining the park’s infrastructure is critical.
The Banff Avenue redevelopment is part of the Banff National Park of Canada Management Plan, which prioritizes protecting and showcasing Canada’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, as well as ensuring the park is accessible and inclusive.
For decades, politicians acknowledged that Parks Canada’s Banff infrastructure needed to be modernized to become fully accessible and inclusive to visitors. While funding was previously unavailable for the visitor centre’s revitalization, Parks Canada received $8-million in 2022 for the conceptual design of the roughly three-acre site.
“Over the last 20 years, [the reimagination] has repeatedly been put into Banff National Park’s management plans,” Ms. Rubeling says. “Our current heritage building was never a purpose-built visitor centre. It’s not meeting the current demand, interest and visibility Parks Canada wants to have.”
When planning the reimagination, Parks Canada first engaged with local Indigenous communities, which shared that they did not feel adequately represented in the national park’s public and visitor narrative. The federal agency also engaged with community members and other external stakeholders such as tourism, hospitality, and arts and culture groups.
The Banff Avenue redevelopment prioritizes how visitors engage with the national park while visiting the picturesque mountain town. Once complete, the reimagined centre will connect to the soon-to-built visitor pavilion.Supplied/Paul Raff Studio and Kengo Kuma & Associates
Designing a place that represents Canada
After receiving federal funding, Parks Canada worked with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada to launch an international competition for the conceptual design of Banff’s visitor centre and new community hub. A jury of professionals evaluated the submissions before selecting the winner: A joint venture between architects Paul Raff Studio and Kengo Kuma and Associates.
For Paul Raff, founding principal and creative director at Toronto-based Paul Raff Studio, designing a place representative of Canada’s geography and culture was an exciting opportunity.
“When I first heard about the opportunity to create a new visitor centre in Banff, it really struck a chord,” Mr. Raff says. “It’s not just a beautiful place and an iconic symbol in the minds of all Canadians, but it’s also well-known abroad.”
For the jury, the winning joint conceptual design stood out for integrating the architectural blueprint with the surrounding landscape and for prioritizing outdoor public space and a connection to nature.
As part of the competition, the architects were also asked to masterplan future housing at Banff Avenue and Beaver Street to help guide future development. The Banff Avenue redevelopment therefore also includes plans for an additional building with approximately 23 apartments.
The new Banff visitor centre will be a large sheltering structure with shale stone on the roof and heavy timber on the interior walls to reflect consultations with local Indigenous groups and to match Banff’s history and heritage.Supplied/Paul Raff Studio and Kengo Kuma & Associates
Honouring the site’s heritage
The Banff Avenue redevelopment prioritizes how visitors engage with the national park while visiting the picturesque mountain town, which is partly why the existing two-storey visitor centre is being reinvented. Once complete, it will connect to the soon-to-built visitor pavilion.
“Our plan is to restore the exterior and adaptively reuse the interior,” Mr. Raff says. “We’re connecting the heritage building to the new pavilion building via light glass passageways, so visitors can easily flow back and forth between the two buildings.”
The new Banff visitor centre will be a large sheltering structure with shale stone on the roof and heavy timber on the interior walls. These materials were chosen to reflect the consultations that took place with local Indigenous groups and to match Banff’s history and heritage.
“We are going to use very simple construction techniques to create this large, serene space with a circular gathering space in the middle,” says Mr. Raff. “It’s delivering a feeling, but it’s also a welcoming and inclusive place.”
The visitor centre will add an “architectural focus” to the town of Banff and speak to the area’s beauty and cultural history as soon as patrons enter the building, Mr. Raff adds.
Beyond several planned one- and two-storey wood-clad pavilions, a key feature of the Banff Avenue redevelopment is the central plaza and public gathering space that will sit alongside the street’s buildings.
“When tourists get off the bus with their cameras or kids get out of the family car looking for an ice cream, a washroom or just somewhere to hang out, this will be the place,” says Mr. Raff.
All along the Watchtower
Part of the heritage building’s adaptive reuse includes raising the roof by approximately two metres and creating a new staircase for a publicly accessible lookout terrace, dubbed the Watchtower.
“The Watchtower is a small intervention, but it creates a completely new experience,” says Derin Kinacigil, chief project manager at Kengo Kuma and Associates, a Japanese firm focused on cultural architecture. “It’s a simple way of reconnecting the building, the town and the landscape. We wanted the architecture to celebrate and protect these views rather than compete with them.”
Parks Canada will soon meet with the winning architects to refine the conceptual design, with more community engagement planned. After that, the federal agency will need to consider funding, approvals and further design developments.
“We have over 4.5-million visitors to Banff National Park every year, and we know that at least 80 per cent of those visitors spend time on Banff Avenue,” says Ms. Rubeling. “This is a way to connect to those visitors and to help them understand what this place is really about.”