SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Salem city commission has conditionally approved demolition of more than a dozen Oregon State Hospital buildings including parts of the J Building, where the 1975 movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed.

The movie was based on the debut novel by the late Eugene author Ken Kesey.

Jack Nicholson won an Oscar for his role as the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy.

Barring appeals, the state’s historic landmark commission’s approval clears the way to begin work on a new $250 million psychiatric complex by this fall.

But the demolition plan has 14 conditions including a committee of historic building preservation experts to help design the new hospital.

The state also must improve a park-like area west of the massive J Building often used by area residents for picnics or dog-walking, although it is on hospital grounds.

Plans call for returning the park’s ornate fountain, in hospital storage for decades.

Builders must reuse or salvage historic materials from the buildings that will be toppled.

The facility has about 60 buildings built from 1883 to the mid-1950s.

Plans call for a world-class psychiatric facility to replace one plagued by overcrowding, crumbling facilities, subpar treatment, patient escapes and patient-on-patient assaults.

The current facility is one of the oldest and most decrepit mental health facilities in the nation. More than 40 percent of the building space is unusable.

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a damning report that cited wide-ranging flaws in patient care and conditions.

As envisioned, remodeled portions of the J Building will be connected to the new psychiatric complex and include space for patient programs, a new mental health museum and a resting place for the unclaimed cremated remains of more than 3,000 patients who died at the hospital from the late 1880s to the mid-70s.

Portions of the J Building slated for demolition include parts still being used.

Some other segments are considered too dangerous to occupy. Besides tearing down more than half of the J Building, plans call for razing the hospitals administration building, its former crematorium, several storage barns, a workshop, an unused water tower and other aged structures.

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