After sitting vacant for over 20 years, the historic Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood is being redeveloped into 97 affordable senior units and a community clinic by AMCAL Multi-Housing. The prominent Spanish-Mission style hospital campus was built in the 1920s and 1930s, originally serving the employees of the Santa Fe Railroad and subsequently becoming a community hospital. After purported negligence leading to a series of deaths in the early 1990s, the hospital was closed, and since then has been used for the filming of hundreds of movies and TV programs, including several “reality” ghost programs focusing on the hospital’s misfortunes. With its appealing historic architecture, ample landscaped grounds, and urban location, the site was a natural fit for adaptive reuse into housing.

The renovation will mesh with the original fabric of the Spanish Mission-style hospital campus. The historic lobbies and common areas will remain, but patient rooms, the nurses’ dormitory and offices will be converted to housing. The new three-story building, located on a 3.5-acre landscaped site, will be built in two phases, with both planned for completion in 2013.