Los Angeles General Medical Center

Los Angeles General Medical Center
  1. About the Los Angeles General Medical Center in Los Angeles
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Los Angeles General Medical Center is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Allied Architects Association, and built in 1933 in Los Angeles, CA.

Los Angeles General Medical Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The Los Angeles General Medical Center is also known, or has been known as, Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, County/USC, LAC+USC, Los Angeles County General Hospital, L.A. General Medical Center, or Great Stone Mother.

Its precise street address is 1200 State Street, Los Angeles, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

Architect and team

Allied Architects Association was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Architectural Style

The Los Angeles General Medical Center can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The Los Angeles General Medical Center was completed in 1933, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

It has a total of 19 floors, which combined offer a total of 1,200,003 sqf (111,484m2) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1933, the Los Angeles General Medical Center has mainly been used as Medical space.

About the hospital

With 1,000 beds throughout its 19 floors, the hospital is publicly funded and serves as a teaching hospital for the University of Southen California.

Other Art Deco
skyscrapers in Los Angeles

Dominguez Wilshire Building
Dominguez–Wilshire Building
  • Morgan, Walls & Clements
  • 1930
E Clem Wilson Building
E. Clem Wilson Building
  • Meyer & Holler
  • 1929
Eastern Columbia Building
Eastern Columbia Building
  • Curlett & Beelman
  • 1930
Garfield Building
Garfield Building
  • Claud Wilbur Beelman
  • 1930
James Oviatt Building
James Oviatt Building
  • Walker & Eisen
  • 1928