Recently, I’ve been thinking about old buildings. I’ve always loved buildings about to be torn down; they fascinate me. Perhaps this is why I’m into 1950s Vegas: the notion of tearing down buildings that are perfectly good. I still have memories of some old houses next to my grandmother’s apartment on Veteran Ave in West Los Angeles. I loved to wander through the houses being torn down (they didn’t put up fences in the 60’s and 70’s).
Perhaps this is why I’m finding what is happening at work so fascinating.
Some folks know that I work at the Circle A Ranch. We’re collocated with the Los Angeles Air Force Base, which is in the process of moving their facilities from “Area A” to what is now called SAMS, but what used to be called “Area B”. On April 10 (a little over one week), the former “Area A” will be turned over to a developer and be torn down.
As I’m a history nut, here’s the story (extracted from the excellent summary by the 61ABG; a full PDF doc is here).
Los Angeles Air Force Base houses and supports the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center. It traces its ancestry back to the Air Research and Development Command’s Western Development Division, which was activated July 1, 1954 in Inglewood, CA. The division set up temporary headquarters in a former parochial school on Manchester Avenue in Inglewood. Early in 1955, Western Development Division moved into buildings on Arbor Vitae Street in southwest Los Angeles, near the airport. These offices housed not only Air Force and civil service personnel, but also personnel working for the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, which provided systems engineering and technical direction for the Division’s missile programs. In 1955, Ramo-Wooldridge purchased 40 acres on the southeast corner of Aviation and El Segundo Boulevards in El Segundo. The site was three miles from the Arbor Vitae complex but was the closest real estate available. Beginning in the middle of 1956, the corporation constructed a complex of seven buildings on the site to provide a home for its operations. That complex, known as the Research and Development Center, was completed in the fall of 1958, and employees of Ramo-Wooldridge–which had become part of Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge (TRW) by then–moved into it. By the late 1950s, the missile program had expanded, and the former Western Development Division–now known as the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division–had become involved in the space program as well. The manpower associated with these growing programs left the Arbor Vitae complex and the R&D Center extremely congested, and additional facilities had to be found to accommodate it. Trailers were rented and parked at the Arbor Vitae complex and the R&D Center, and additional buildings were rented in southwest Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale and Torrance. In April 1961, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was divided into Ballistic Systems Division and Space Systems Division, and between July and September 1962, Ballistic Systems Division moved to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, CA. In December 1961, the Air Force had purchased the R&D Center from TRW to serve as a home for The Aerospace Corporation, which had been created in 1960 and was now supporting Air Force space programs. As a result of these changes, Space Systems Division occupied the Arbor Vitae complex and Aerospace occupied the R&D Center. The departure of Ballistic Systems Division and TRW relieved pressure on the facilities, and there was now enough office space for Space Systems Division and Aerospace.
There was still a problem in that the Arbor Vitae complex and the R&D Center were three miles apart. It was obviously more efficient to consolidate SSD and Aerospace in one place, and from 1961 to 1962, a plan was devised to bring that about. The plan involved acquisition of two pieces of real estate adjoining the R&D Center. One, a 50 acre parcel at the northwest corner of Aviation and El Segundo Boulevards, was part of an aircraft plant owned by the Navy. That site was transferred to the Air Force in October 1962. The other site, a 31-acre parcel at the southwest corner of the same intersection, was owned by the Utah Construction and Mining Company. The Aerospace Corporation acquired that site in November 1962 and built its new headquarters there between February 1963 and April 1964. As Aerospace personnel moved into the new buildings, Air Force people moved into the R&D Center and the former Navy facility. By April 10, 1964, this process was complete, and the Air Force property at the intersection of Aviation and El Segundo Boulevards was designated as Los Angeles Air Force Station. The R&D Center became Area A of Los Angeles Air Force Station, and the former Navy facility became Area B.
Space Systems Division’s successors have remained at Los Angeles Air Force Station, which was redesignated as Los Angeles Air Force Base in September 1987.
So, why are they tearing Area A down and giving it to a developer? The answer is simple: Base Realignment. If you read the history, you know that the buildings in Area A were built in 1955. They were not earthquake safe; they didn’t have modern electrical and heating infrastructures. They were a liability in the face of BRAC, especially when other facilities were trying to lure the LAAFB business. An innovative plan was developed where the land in Area A, a smaller parcel in Annex 3 down the street, and the old AFRTS property in Sun Valley were sold or traded to a developer, in exchange for that developer building a new facility in Area B. The first phases of this are complete; the new SAMS complex is open and the AF has relocated; next Area A comes down. It was a complicated swap, for it also involved moving jurisdiction of Area A from the City of El Segundo to the City of Hawthorne.
So why am I writing this. The last days for the buildings at Area A are April 10 (although I think they have negotiated some parking rights after that). I keep getting this urge to go over there at lunch one day, just to see the empty offices and feel the ghosts. Another piece of history to be lost. I am pleased to note (as discussed in this article in Astro News) that they will be moving the historical monuments from Area A before it goes.
