NEW MENTAL HOSPITAL MASTER PLAN IS FOR BUILDING FOR 6,000 PATIENTS

By George B. McDougall, A. L. A, State Architect in California highways and Public Works

The site known as the Lewis Ranch consisting of 1,600 acres in Ventura County was selected for a new state hospital for the insane on April 29, 1932. The site is situated 1 ½ miles from the town of Camarillo, which is 17 miles south of Ventura  and 56 miles north of Los Angeles on the Coast Highway.
    Between May 11th and June 11th of this years Doctor J.M. Toner, director of the state department of institutions, Doctor Herman Alder, consulting psychiatrist of the department, Paul Norman, secretary, and the state architect visited, among other institutions, 11 state hospitals for the insane in the eastern states to obtain first hand information as to the latest development in such institutions.
    Following return form the trip, tentative preliminary sketches for a master plan for the ultimate institution and for the first unit for patient's were started and modified form time to time until after eight different conferences, both at the site and in Sacramento, the last one held at the site, October 5, 1932, these preliminary studies were approved and adopted. 


    Working drawings and specifications as required for bids ate now being made and will be completed so as to permit advertising for bids by March 1, 1933. It is expected that the ceremony of turning the first shovelful of earth at the site can be held May 1, 1933, the institution to be ready for the reception of patients in the spring of 1934,
    In the meantime, provision has already been made for the housing of 50 patients in the existing wood frame buildings. These patients will be employed in farming, grading for roads, and similar work that will contribute to the physical and mental health.
    The preliminary work besides the development and approval of the preliminary drawings above mentioned, has covered also a contour survey of the entire site, the layout of roads both on the site and to provide approaches to it, also sewage disposal, water development, flood control, steam plant and gas and electric services. 


    While the working drawings and specifications for the portion of the first unit for patients now to be built are being completed and bids taken, work will be gotten under way on building of roads and the development of the water supply system.
   The perspective view accompanying this article shows a group of building which will ultimately have a capacity for about 2,000 patients. The portion to be built with funds at present available will have accommodations for 800 patients; one ward, however, will be used temporarily for 100 attendants, so that the initial patient capacity will be for 700. 
   In the provision for curable patients there will be included, besides the ward and single room accommodations required, the diagnostic and

hospital group, which will provide all the services for classification, diagnosis, and hospitalization for both sexes, as well as rooms for laboratory and research work.     The configuration of the portion of the site which is to be used for the structures composing the main institution is such as to permit of the housing of all employees, who as already stated may ultimately number 1,000 on a separated but near-by area lying higher that the patient’s groups.  While the employees will be accessible to the patients their homes and living quarters will nevertheless be isolated form them.  The community life of the employees can be developed along the desirable lines of any well regulated community.  Building provisions for the community life are included in the master plan and will be made as the institution grows and funds are provided.
    The Plan scheme of the patients’ structures involves the use of a connected group of one and two story ward units gently rising with the natural contours of the ground and enclosing a large central plaza or court and 12 smaller courts.  There will be a total of 22 wards in this 2,000-patient unit. 


    Each group for 2,000 patients is to have its own feeding unit and its own industrial unit; also a hospitalization unit, administration quarters, and apartments for offices.     Besides having access to the large central court, each ward will have access also to two of the smaller courts, thus making possible a maximum number of segregations for the various types of patients.  Two-thirds of the patients in the group will be housed in the first floor and one –third on the second.     The architectural style of the entire group will be in the keeping with the California adapt ion of the Mediterranean styles of Spain and Italy, and the one and two story arrangement, besides promoting picturesqueness, home likeness, and architectural effectiveness, will give the patients the freest access to the outdoor courts.  All of the courts are completely enclosed, thus providing control against possible escapes of patients without interfering with their freedom. 

   Very careful attention is to be given to the color schemes both on the exterior and the interior of the buildings and also to the landscaping of the grounds of the entire institution, but particularly of the large central court and the smaller courts in the patients’ quarters in order to get the largest possible therapeutic value into the surroundings in which the patients live.

avoid sound reverberation.
    The service group including the steam plant, laundry, bakery, commissary, store-house, general garage, etc., is provided for on the master plan and will be built around a court enclosed by the various units.  This court will be used for the storage of surplus materials and other accumulations resulting form the operation of the hospital, which will thus be available for reuse when needed and in the meantime will be out of sight.
    The construction will be of reinforced concrete frame, reinforced concrete and brick exterior walls, and concrete roof with clay tile covering, and will therefore be fire and deterioration resisting throughout.      The amount of money at present available is $1,000,000.  About $700,000 of this amount will be used for buildings, the remainder being required for roads and walks, sewage disposal, sewage collection, water development and distribution, gas, electric, and telephone services, flood control, fire protection, ground lighting, interior furnishings, and for equipment for dairy, laundry, bakery, kitchen, and landscaping.
    The total sum of $7,000,000 will probably be required to complete the entire 6,000-patient institution, and the length of time involved in ultimate completion will of course depend on the demand for additional beds and the provision of funds.  The site being only five miles from the coast in a straight line, the climate is cool in the summer and mild in the winter, which will make the institution unique as having a somewhat more equable climate than any other six existing state mental hospitals. 
           The natural contours of the building site itself and the relation to it of the surrounding hills are such as to provide a more picturesque setting for the buildings, which, as already stated, will be located on rising ground and will be approached from the entrance lying on somewhat lower ground.  These hills, besides adding to the picturesqueness of the building group will provide effective protection against such winds and fogs as usually occur along the coast. 
 

Fund Is Sufficient to Build First Unit to Accommodate 2,000 Patients
 

An appropriation of $1,000,000 is now available to complete the larger part of the first unit of the new state mental hospital south of Camarillo, according to State Architect George McDougall, work on which will begin in earnest this coming spring.
    Of this $1,000,000 about $700,000 will go into building construction and about $300,000 for road construction, grading landscaping, furnishings, utility extensions, and the like.
   As presented by McDougall, the plans for the first hospital unit, designated for custodial males, or men patients undergoing continued treatment, provide a group of buildings covering  nearly 20 acres, about  800 feet in width and 100 feet deep. It consists of a large hollow square surrounded by buildings, most of which are to be two stories, and flanked on the outside by a series of smaller squares in turn  surrounded at the sides and on the outside by one story structures. Each of these wards, about 20 in number, will accommodate from 75 to 100 patients, and each will have access to the larger central court. Outdoor life and the maximum of fresh air and sunshine for the patients ate being given first consideration.
   No wood is to be used in the construction, so that termite, fire, and other hazards will be eliminated.
The department of agriculture has an expert on the grounds studying the tree and shrubbery requirements, and has a large stock of young trees growing at one of its farms.  A nursery for the propagation of other sock is to be started in the near future at the Lewis Ranch, where the hospital is located.
 
    A similar unit for women patients and a third unit of about the same size for more aggravated cases are to be later steps in the development.
   The employees are to be housed in a little separate village tucked away in a near by valley on the ranch.