UPDATE: Demolition of the Pearson wing at the old NWSS has now begun. Check out a photo gallery and the latest update here
It will be the visible end of an era when the walls at the old New Westminster Secondary School start coming down tomorrow.
Demolition of the Pearson wing is planned to start Wednesday morning (June 7). The exterior demolition follows an extended period of hazardous materials abatement inside the old school, as well as deconstruction and recycling of interior materials.
Dave Crowe, School District 40's director of capital projects, updated trustees on the status of the old school decommissioning at their June 6 operations committee meeting. He noted the entire project is now about 55 to 60 per cent complete.
Most visible to the community will be the work that's set to start tomorrow, as the Pearson wing starts to come down. That demolition is set for completion in mid- to late summer this year.
At the same time, hazardous materials abatement is continuing in the Massey wing, with demolition of that wing to follow this fall.
Crowe noted the project will continue to salvage as much material as possible for reuse as the building comes down; wood that can't be salvaged for reuse will be recycled.
A report from Crowe notes one major repurposing project of particular local interest: The Massey Theatre Society has made an agreement to acquire timbers from the school for construction of a new welcome centre that's planned for the front of the theatre.
Future plans: What lies ahead for the old NWSS site?
Ultimately, the land currently occupied by the old school will become a memorial park dedicated to historic uses of the site.
A previous report to school board, in October 2020, laid out plans for the future memorial park that will occupy the land where the old school now sits. That park, which is planned to be built in phases over the next three years, will include greenery, pathways and a number of tributes — by way of art and signage — to the original uses of the land.
The current school, which opened in 1949, sits on a cemetery that was used between 1860 and 1920 as a potter's field where bodies of the poor, prisoners, stillborn babies and patients from Woodlands and Essondale (which later became Riverview) were buried. The land was also used by Chinese, Sikh and Indigenous communities to bury their dead.
The first phase of work on the memorial park comes with budget of $1 million.
📢 SOUND OFF: Did you attend the old NWSS? Will you miss the old building, or are you happy to see it come down? If you have memories or stories to share, let us know — send us a letter.
