St. Pat’s High School will soon face wrecking ball

WATCH ABOVE: St. Pat’s High School began the first phase of demolition Monday, which will continue over the next year. Ray Bradshaw reports.

HALIFAX – A former high school that’s been standing in the heart of Halifax for more than half a century will soon face the wrecking ball. The first phase of demolition of St. Patrick’s High School began Monday and will continue over the next year.

The landscape is about to change at the corner of Quinpool Road and Windsor street in central Halifax, where the former St. Pat’s High School now stands.

A fence has been put up and the materials within the building are being checked and prepared for safe removal.

READ MORE: Roof collapses at old St. Patrick’s High School in Halifax

For those who attended St. Pat’s, as it’s known, it may be a little sad to say goodbye to the old school.

“There are a lot of memories there,” said Halifax District 8 Councillor, Jennifer Watts. “But we’ve been through some consultation with the community already and council made a decision last year that this property would go up for sale.”

Three concepts of what the site could look like will be unveiled Wednesday night at a public meeting, at the Halifax Forum Multi-Purpose Centre starting at 6:30 p.m.

“We will be asking residents to look at those designs and consider them with respect to certain urban design principles,” said Tiffany Chase, the Senior Communications Advisor for Halifax. “The objective is for us to come up with a final design later this year that will ensure we have a high-quality development that reflects public interest actually end up on this site, and this will inform the future sale of this site as well.”

Watts said a mixed-use development is what council wants and the options are categorized under several themes.

“Is there open space, what is the good urban design, what does the housing component look like,” she said.

Ian Porter, a home owner on nearby Welsford Street, plans on going to the meeting.

Across the street from St. Pat’s, on Quinpool Road, is a parking garage and high-rise tower.

Porter said there’s a concern that will also be torn down and two high rise buildings will be constructed on the site.

“Right now, there are applications for spot-free zoning at the corner of Quinpool and Robie and on a site on the west side, facing the Halifax Commons. Both of these are quite out of scale with anything else in the neighbourhood.”

Porter also noted there’s a traffic lineup on Welsford Street every morning, and with more people more thought has to go into street development.