Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center

Established shortly after the Civil War, the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers ultimately evolved into the Veterans Administration. An expansive campus started in Milwaukee in 1867 was one of the federal agency’s first three facilities.

Because of the significance of its landscape, as well as its historical and architectural significance, the property was designated a National Historic Landmark. It now serves as the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center, a mission that requires changes to the historic property to meet twenty-first-century needs.

We worked with a multidisciplinary team to facilitate needed modifications while ensuring that the historic character of the landmark was retained. To inform decisions, we prepared a Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) that documented the evolution of the campus. We assisted with Section 106 reviews and recorded features of the campus that were slated for demolition for the Historic American Buildings Record (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). These reports are archived in the Library of Congress.