Muttart Conservatory

The Muttart Conservatory opened in 1976 in the North Saskatchewan River valley, across from downtown Edmonton. It was paid for by a gift from the Gladys and Merrill Muttart Foundation, with further funding from the Government of Alberta and the City of Edmonton, which still owns and runs it.

The design went to Peter Hemingway (1929-1995), a British-born architect who had emigrated to Canada in 1955 and set up his own practice in Alberta the following year. Of all his buildings, this cluster of pyramidal greenhouses is by far the best known.

A $6.3 million renovation completed in June 2009 focused largely on visitor facilities, including a new café. The conservatory reached its fiftieth year in 2026.

Hemingway grouped four glazed pyramids around a central service core. The two larger ones each cover 660 square metres and the two medium-sized ones 410 square metres, while a fifth, much smaller pyramid acts as a skylight over the central foyer. The compact plan keeps the building services at the heart of the complex.

Set low in the valley below downtown, the pyramids form a crisp geometric counterpoint to the city's towers and have become one of Edmonton's most recognisable sights.

Some 700 plant species are spread across the pyramids. The Tropical Pyramid holds a great diversity of species beneath a canopy of palms, bananas and weeping figs, along with orchids and other exotics; an imported titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) bloomed there in April 2013. The Temperate Pyramid gathers deciduous trees, redwoods and specimens from Australia and Asia. The Arid Pyramid covers hot and cold drylands on five continents, and in 2013 an agave inside it reached about 30 feet. The Feature Pyramid is replanted several times a year with themed shows, from a winter tropical landscape populated by dinosaurs to spring displays of bulbs.

The conservatory sits at 9626 96A Street in the river valley that runs through Edmonton, a short distance from downtown. The route fans out from the central foyer into the four pyramids, so a few steps take visitors from desert to rainforest. Because the Feature Pyramid changes several times a year, the building repays visits in different seasons. Outdoor gardens surround it, and there is a gift shop and a café; some evenings are set aside for adults only.