Everyone has probably seen this photo of an interesting operating theater with stadium seating at the old County Hospital, taken when it was newly opened...
![](http://waterandpower.org/Historical_DWP_Photo_Collection_LA_Public_Library/General_Hospital_1933.jpg)
(DWP Photo Collection at WaterAndPower.org)
Well, I got to wondering where in that giant 18 story building that room could possibly be. I figured the main clue is that huge 3-story, four section high window. Flipping through some pics, I noticed that there was only one such fenestration, at the 15-17 floor, west end of the building (highlighted yellow):
Had some time at lunch today, so I went up and looked. Sure enough, there it was:
At some point they clearly added a more sophisticated illumination system and removed whatever those wall mounted devices were, but it's largely the same. I would have taken a picture from the same point as the original but...
...for reasons unknown they walled off about a third of the stadium seating.
If you think those seats look steep, you're right. They're pretty scary to navigate. The steps leading from tier to tier are nearly ladder-steep, and the railings are uncomfortably low. If you fell backwards while climbing them, you'd likely fall all the way down and die of a cracked skull. Clearly this was designed and built in the old days, before safety was invented.