Security concerns at St. Paul’s Hospital have lead to a decision to tear down the glass rotunda at the front of the building.  53 thousand dollars has been budgeted to remove the structure.

St. Paul’s Executive Director Karen Barber says the structure itself has created some issues so they had an assessment conducted through Crime Prevention called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. She says they have had some advice from experts through that assessment and one of the key recommendations was to remove the rotunda so they would have a clearer line of sight.

CJWW News asked Barber if tearing down the rotunda was simply moving the problem actually inside the hospital itself where there is now a coffee shop and seating near the front entrance.

“Well, we have security staff indoors. We’ve done a number of things to improve safety and security throughout the building and one of those things is an increased presence of security in targeted areas of the hospital and so that is one of those areas.”

Dismantling of the rotunda started in October and is expected to wrap up by early December at the latest. Next is the design phase to determine what do with the area once the rotunda is gone.