A record of war, service, survival, and restoration is written as a visual social history in the structures and landscapes of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. This record has been rendered invisible in recent years – or at least as invisible as a 388-acre site within prosperous westside Los Angeles can be – by neglect and misuse. Originally deeded to the Federal government in 1887 for use as a ‘Soldier’s Home,’ the campus has degraded over time. Under the terms of a court-ordered settlement honoring stipulations in the original 1887 deed, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) was directed to prepare a master plan to revitalize the campus to be ‘Veteran-centric’ once again.

The Master Plan Framework envisions a long-term build-out focused on housing and services for veterans, restores and enhances the site’s historic legacy, conserves and repairs its natural setting, and facilitates and promotes reintegration of veterans into civilian life. The plan is based on principles of community design as a home for all veterans, composed of diverse mixed-use neighborhoods forming, in the broadest sense, a therapeutic setting for veterans. The Master Plan Framework establishes a Central Square as a community focal point and mixed-use center for veterans’ activities; re-use of the site’s industrial area as a veteran reintegration zone with continuing education, job training, veteran business incubator space, and programs for the arts; access to the site from the Metro subway; enhanced health care facilities, including new research laboratories and graduated care facilities for aging veterans.