Picture a 454-foot tower rising in 1928, its pyramid modeled on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. When City Hall was completed in 1928, it rose 454 feet with a pyramidal tower modeled on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. For nearly thirty years it was the only building in the city permitted to exceed 150 feet — a height limit designed to protect the city from earthquake damage — and its white tower was visible from virtually every point in the basin.
In its shadow, the city government administered the fastest-growing major city in America. The building has appeared in more movies and television shows than any other structure in Los Angeles, most famously as the Daily Planet in the Superman television series of the 1950s. It also appeared in War of the Worlds and was destroyed on screen by everything from alien heat rays to giant creatures.
Notice the observation deck beneath the pyramid, open to the public on weekdays; from the 27th floor the basin stretches from the mountains to the sea.