Photo: It's A Trapp!

New Westminster's Trapp Block, built more than a hundred years ago and now one of the many surviving heritage structures along Columbia Street, is not long for this world in its current form. It's on the Canadian Register of Historic Places, but with only a ground-floor store holding down the fort, it's been left mostly empty to deteriorate and decay for a while. The back of the building in particular, facing onto Front Street and the parkade, looks like something you'd expect to find in a postapocalyptic ruin.

For now, nature has reclaimed its upper reaches, with tufts of grass and small trees sprouting from the ledges. Soon, it'll be the site of activity - the facades of Trapp Block and the adjacent Holbrook Block will be retained, like that Art Deco building at Granville in Robson in Vancouver, but a new condominium complex will be rising up behind them. It's probably for the best... the way Trapp Block looks now, I doubt it would be able to survive the next earthquake anyway.


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