Los Angeles' 1949 master plan called for branch administrative centers throughout the rapidly expanding city.

[4] Part of what is now the Civic Center occupies what was the central business district (CBD) of the 1880s and 1890s, which was first centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza and grew to the south and west along Main Street, Spring Street and Broadway, with Third & Broadway forming its southwestern anchor by the mid-1890s.

The plan also conceived two County buildings: Stanley Mosk Courthouse completed in 1958, the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration opening in 1960, designed by Stanton, Stockwell, Williams and Wilson in Late Moderne style, flanking either side of a new pedestrian mall, Civic Center Mall, now part of Grand Park.

In March 2017, the Los Angeles City Council approved a new Civic Center Master Plan (CCMP).

The CCMP schedules for a full tear down of Parker Center (torn down in 2019), L.A. City Hall's "south" building, and the Los Angeles Mall.

[9] The CCMP calls for active ground-floor uses, to stimulate the pedestrian traffic that the Civic Center currently lacks.