Parkland Health has moved its final employees out of the hospital's long-time campus on Harry Hines Boulevard. Most of the property has been unused since the new Parkland was opened across the street in 2015. All patients were re-located at that time but some administrative employees had continued to work out of the old campus.
Now that those workers have been moved to new facilities, crews will begin work to demolish the old facility. Some of the structures on the campus date back to the 1950's. One of the biggest tasks will be to remove all of the asbestos, which is a heat-resistant fiber that was a commonly-used building material before workplace exposure to asbestos was linked to cancer.
Once that is accomplished, crews will demolish the buildings piece-by-piece. The process is expected to take two years and should be finished by November of 2023.
The site being demolished includes the building where President John F. Kennedy died after being shot in Dallas in November of 1963. That specific portion of the Emergency Department, Trauma Room 1, was purchased by the federal government and its contents have been stored at a secure location. The rest of the Emergency Department had been renovated several times since the 1960's. The property was not designated as a historic landmark.
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