LA County General Hospital & West Campus
Client
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Los Angeles County
Area
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Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA
Status
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In Progress
Type
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Adaptive Reuse, Mixed Use, Housing
Rising above Boyle Heights, the historic Los Angeles County General Hospital has long stood as a symbol of civic care and community.
Now, the building is being reimagined as the anchor of a new Healthy Village, a mixed-use campus centered on wellness, housing, and community services with Centennial Partners (Primestor + Bayspring) and Los Angeles County. Omgivning is the Design Architect for this 1.2 million square foot historic high rise adaptive reuse to provide new housing, community spaces, retail, green spaces, and gathering places that foster connection and wellbeing.
History
Known affectionately as the “Great Stone Mother,” the Los Angeles County General Hospital was designed to embody a profound civic promise: that no county resident should be deprived of health or life for lack of care. Constructed between 1927 and 1933 by the Allied Architects’ Association of Los Angeles (who also designed the Hall of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles), the massive twenty-story, Art Deco structure reflected New Deal ideals of scale, centralized organization, and beauty in efficient form. It was, at the time, the largest single hospital facility built west of Chicago.
This civic vision was immortalized in its design: concrete statues by Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta, including the central Angel of Mercy, overlook the entrance, while the spacious foyer features exquisite ceiling murals by artist Hugo Ballin depicting Asclepius and other exalted figures of medicine.
The hospital became a national model for public healthcare, training generations of medical professionals and treating countless patients from across the region. It is also notable for its relationship to significant community organizing, including the Chicano Movement of the 1970s and the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and ’90s.
However, after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the structure no longer met California’s stringent seismic safety requirements. By 2010, acute medical services were relocated to a new facility next door, leaving the original 1.2 million square foot tower largely vacant.
For years, the “Great Stone Mother” remained quiet yet unforgotten, its silhouette visible for miles across Los Angeles and its ornate Art Deco details reminding the city of its enduring legacy. Today, it is being redefined for a new century, one rooted not in medicine but in community, equity, and access, through the adaptive reuse of this landmark structure.
Design
As Design Architect for the adaptive reuse of the LA County General Hospital, Omgivning is advancing an adaptive reuse approach that respects the building’s monumental character while forging humane, day to day places for community life. To propel the campus into its next chapter, the once fortress like ground level perimeter is being reconfigured into a porous edge, blending public green spaces and pedestrian paths directly into and through the building.
The main corridor will transform into an “interior street,” lined with neighborhood-serving retail and community uses to invite everyday public participation. Furthermore, selective carving at lower floors introduces a series of light courts and garden courtyards, providing direct outdoor access and flexibility for new ground-floor uses. This emphasis on biophilia, flexibility, and accessibility extends to the upper floors and rooftops, maximizing openings for light and air and visually connecting the interior life to adaptable outdoor spaces that support the wellbeing of all users.
Reuse
Beyond the adaptive reuse of the hospital building, existing materials, furniture, fixtures and equipment are also being assessed for potential salvage, reuse and recirculation into a circular economy. This approach to circularity reduces construction and demolition waste, and redesigns materials to be maintained, redistributed, refurbished or recycled.. Diverted materials have potential social, environmental and economic impacts for the project and surrounding community by providing affordable products to the community, maintaining embodied carbon through reuse of steel and concrete on site, and extracting value from products that can offset project costs.
