The Los Angeles City Council has voted to uphold the approval of a proposed expansion of the USC Health Sciences campus, rejecting an appeal from activists in the surrounding neighborhood which have sought to block the project's construction.

The project, called the USC Discovery and Translation Hub, was approved by the City Planning Commission earlier this year for a site at 1500 Eastlake Avenue. Plans call for the construction of a seven-story, nearly 144-foot-tall building featuring over 200,000 square feet of research space, including both wet and dry labs. The complex would have space for up to 84 researchers, and would be connected to the neighboring Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine through a subterranean passageway.

Aerial view looking northSmithGroup

SmithGroup is designing the contemporary mid-rise structure, which would also include a lecture hall, a cafe, and other supportive features for research. Plans also call for adding new landscaping and open space to an existing central quad at the exterior of the site.

Findings included with the project's entitlement filing in December 2022 estimated that the complex would cost approximately $315 million to build.

The City Council hearing marked a continuation of a dispute which delayed the approval of the project at City Planning Commission for more than half of a year. USC Forward, a coalition residents from the surrounding area, have loudly opposed the Discovery and Translation Hub, arguing that the project would accelerate gentrification near in the surrounding community and calling on USC to address issues such as employment and housing insecurity for its neighbors.

Site planSmithGroup

The appeal, rejected on the recommendation of staff, had argued that the new facility would be used to increase enrollment at the Health Sciences Campus, worsen traffic congestion, limit the availability of parking, and lead to displacement in the surrounding community.

Staff rejected those arguments, countering that the appeal had conflated enrollment figures for USC as a whole to those with the Health Sciences Campus, where growth in the student population has gone up by approximately 5 percent since 2010. During that time, the campus has added 749 beds of student housing to the campus. Likewise, the staff report pointed out the campus has approximately 1,000 more parking spaces than required by the municipal code.

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