Photo by Daniel Olson An excavator works on demolishing the Art Wall Park building Monday. The park is still open, and the Art Wall with graffiti on it is still there.

NEW ULM — The Art Wall Park building underwent its scheduled demolition Monday.

The building was constructed after the park first opened in 2000, at 221 6th Street

North. After more than twenty years of usage, the building could no longer stay up. Maintenance Supervisor Ryan Weier explained the situation of the building’s need to be destroyed.

“We were still using it for storage,” he said. “We were slowly moving storage out of there and into a new storage building. More importantly, the vandalism had escalated over the years and was damaging access to the building. It was becoming dangerous and financially inefficient to keep the building safe. An intentionally set fire occurred inside the building earlier this summer and that was the last incident prompting the removal to move forward indefinitely. Consistent vandalism has made it to where it would take a significant financial investment to fix everything.”

Due to the schedule of the contractor, it was believed the demolition would not occur until later in the fall. However, Weier said the rain received over the weekend cleared the contractor’s schedule to the point they could complete the project. The crew removed the roof and one wall first, then removed the other three brick walls.

The building coming down will not affect the status of the park. Weier said the building being removed will leave the space as an open gravel canvas and the walls and other features displaying art will not be touched. “The space will be leveled ground and there are no plans to put anything else in its place,” Weier said.

Park and Rec Director Joey Schugel said the other features of the park were not a part of the demolition, and he hopes the freelance art scene will continue to thrive in the building’s absence.

“We’re committed to keeping the Art Wall Park as an option for community art,” Schugel said. “We hope it is something that sticks around in one of our park units.”

While there will be some sections cordoned off until all the debris is removed, the trail and the rest of the park are still open during their normal hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.