Two decaying buildings on the historic Riverview Hospital grounds in Coquitlam will soon be torn down.
This month, an official with BC Housing — the provincial government’s landlord for the 244 acres on Lougheed Highway — said it had applied to the city for permits to demolish two small buildings for safety reasons: the bakery and the old electrical receiving station.
Located behind the West Lawn building, the bakery's first floor collapsed and some people and animals have been trapped inside, said Lauren English, BC Housing’s director of land development at Riverview.
The receiving station, at the north end of the property, also needs to come down as it’s a security hazard, she said.
Speaking to Coquitlam's Riverview Lands advisory committee, which reports and makes recommendations to council, English gave an update about other maintenance and infrastructure projects on the grounds.
Since the summer, BC Housing has started roofing repairs at the East, Centre and North Lawn buildings — built in 1929, 1924 and 1955, respectively — commenced cottage and steam boiler repairs, and doubled site voltage from 12.5 kV to 25kV. The power update involved the new Healing Spirit House.
There have also been environmental remediation and habitat upgrades around Davidson Creek, which is named after the first provincial botanist, John Davidson, who set up an arboretum, nursery and botanical garden at Riverview.
English said some 7,000 native plants will go in around the creek this fall and winter. As well, Julian Dunster, a registered consulting arborist, has braced some older trees to withstand climate and soil changes.
English also noted some capital costs are offset by the film industry, which uses the grounds nearly every day (updates to buildings are often negotiated into filming contracts).
As for the community beautification day in September at Finnie’s Garden, English said BC Housing hopes to host more such happenings. At last month's event, more than 20 volunteers weeded, mulched and tidied up the south part of the garden that’s now run by the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society.
Meanwhile, Gail Sidhu, band manager with the Kwikwetlem First Nation (KFN), which has a land claim on the Riverview lands, spoke about the new Halq'eméylem signs, set to be installed along the site’s multi-use path, showing a heron, red fish and person that interpret as “Place of the Great Blue Heron,” “Our Ancestors, Our Home” and “Helping Each Other.”
Sidhu said KFN hopes to have more bilingual signs around Riverview to tell its history. Its goal is to change the Riverview street names as well, she said.
In addition, Sidhu said KFN Chief Ed Hall is working with the Royal BC Museum to repatriate Kwikwetlem artifacts, with the aim to display them in a museum on its traditional territory. Some finds during recent archaeological digs at Riverview date back more than 3,000 years.
Requests for comment from the Royal BC Museum were not returned.
