Ghost Story: How a Haunted Hospital Got a Second Lease on Life
A subject of urban myths, Linda Vista Community Hospital (originally Santa Fe Railroad Hospital) in LA’s Boyle Heights closed about 25 years ago. And as the old place has been reborn as senior housing, we caught up with KFA principal John Arnold, who tells us the hospital is quite the ghost story.
John says ever since the closing people have been spinning tales about patients unexpectedly dying there leaving their ghosts to linger. He also noted scores of movies and TV shows, including the movie Addams Family Values and Ghost Adventures, were filmed here, which added to haunted lore. “It might look spooky at night, but the truth is it’s just bricks and mortar like all buildings.”
KFA and the design team have redesigned this 140k SF, Spanish Revival-style historical landmark, which was built in the 1920s and 1930s, to a 120-unit senior housing complex. This $40M project by affordable housing developer AMCAL Multi-Housing opened in late summer and is 100% leased.
John says among the greatest challenges in the redesign was simply taking all the hospital stuff out of it. The goal was to restore the building, preserving its essential character (note the community room's Art Deco terrazzo floor and coved ceiling), while bringing it back to life with a new use, he says.
John says patient rooms were easily redesigned as apartments because they had windows that let in lots of light, but areas used for procedures, medical technologies—“places for fixing people up”—and other areas, like the morgue and boiler room, were a greater challenge, because they were not necessarily designed to be pleasant, light spaces. There were also many wings added over time.“Every time you put on a wing, it gets darker and darker in the core of the building.”
The center of the main wing had hospital communal areas, including a dining room and kitchen that had lots of space for conversion into big apartment units, but they were windowless. Among the most interesting aspects of the reno was cutting a hole into the center of the roof, where the firm dropped in a three-story courtyard-style atrium to give these units light.
Getting rid of leftover sets from filming and other messes also presented challenges. John says there was lots of graffiti in there, and people filming went in there and had their way with the space, noting that historical surfaces had to be cleaned and refurbished.
John says the set builders did such a good job making some stuff look authentic, it was sometimes difficult to determine what was part of a movie set and what was actually part of the historic structure. For example, the decorative tie rods on the ceiling in the old dining room, pictured here, had nice wooden beams covering them. At first they were thought to be part of the original building, and when it was realized they were hollow, the “beams” were removed to reveal this historic iron tie rods within. Another top amenity is the building's four-acre park-like setting and rooftop deck with spectacular views of Hollenbeck Park and Downtown LA.
