Wascana Centre is Regina's defining civic space: a 930-hectare park built around an artificial lake that occupies the centre of the city. The provincial Legislative Building, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the University of Regina, and the Conexus Arts Centre all cluster around the lake's edge, giving the park an institutional weight that makes it both the city's cultural heart and its largest green space.
The lake itself is the park's greatest pleasure. Pelicans nest on the islands in the middle of the water — a genuinely improbable sight in the middle of a prairie city — and geese, ducks, and shore birds are present in large numbers throughout the spring and summer. The walking and cycling path that circles the lake is about 5 kilometres and offers close-up views of the Legislative Building, the Wascana Waterfowl Park (a protected nesting area), and the prairie sky reflected in the still water. In winter the lake freezes and is used for skating. The park is best in late spring and early autumn, when the waterfowl are active and the temperature is manageable.