ABC, 2005 onward · set in Seattle, filmed in Los Angeles
Ellen PompeoMeredith Grey · 2008
Patrick DempseyDerek Shepherd · 2008
Sandra OhCristina Yang · 2007
Katherine HeiglIzzie Stevens · 2007
Shonda RhimesCreator · 2008
Round the station: Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh and Katherine Heigl during the third and fourth seasons, and Shonda Rhimes, who created the show. Bennett drew hallways that all lead to the main nurses’ station, with balconies inside to make the set feel bigger. That station is a set in Los Feliz, so every corridor below leads somewhere real.
Los Feliz · six soundstages
Bailey’s clinic
Bailey’s clinic, walls in place. Choose another room.
The show is set in Seattle and filmed at Prospect Studios in Los Feliz, on six soundstages.
The stages hold the hospital interiors, Joe’s Bar, and the inside and back yard of the intern house. Most of the set is modular. Bailey’s clinic has its walls pulled out to become the lecture hall, Richard’s office or the attending lounge.
Production designer John Zachary says the hospital would cover about ten city blocks if it were real. Two operating rooms never come apart. One has a second storey: a gallery reached by a staircase.
The lot was ABC’s West Coast headquarters for more than fifty years, until the network moved in 1996; Disney still owns it.
A working studio lot behind a gate at Prospect and Talmadge. There are no tours; see the gate from the street.
Walk and talk
Its size gave them the idea of space: long speeches walked through hallways, round corners, into rooms that lead to other rooms. So walk it. Pick a corridor from the station; every step is one line of talk, and the distance is the real one from the stages in Los Feliz.
Eight corridors leave the station. Four stay in Los Angeles; four run to Seattle and break off the plan.
At the station. Choose a corridor.
Seattle
Live marketplace results for Seattle tours of film and television locations. Check which stop at Queen Anne and Seattle Center.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursThe long corridor
From the nurses’ station to the helipad. The station is on a stage in Los Feliz; the roof is in Seattle.
Its rooftop plays the fictional hospital’s helipad, and you can watch helicopters take off from it. It was built as Fisher Plaza: six storeys, finished in 2000, home to KOMO 4 news.
Contiki says the outdoor hospital shots are B-roll of the plaza.
A television station and office building. Watch the roof from the street; you cannot go up.
Looking out of the bridge window, the pilot’s director Peter Horton thought he could see Bellevue across the Sound. It was Los Angeles.
For the pilot the team found Sepulveda VA Medical Center in North Hills. It became the hospital’s exterior and the inside of its airbridge. The pilot was filmed in the basement tunnels, dressed with gurneys and old equipment as the interns’ refuge.
The first observation gallery was built in the VA’s gym for the pilot, then moved into the studio set when the show went to series.
A season-four scene with Eric Dane and Patrick Dempsey was filmed outside it.
A working veterans’ medical centre. Look from Plummer Street and the public car parks; do not film or wander in.
Seattle Center · General admission $35–$55
Timed tickets to the top of the Needle, a short walk from the helipad roof. Open daily from 10.30am Monday to Thursday and from 9 or 9.30am Friday to Sunday.
Plan a visitQueen Anne and First Hill
Ellen Pompeo filmed here for the season-two episode Let It Be.
The cast and crew sometimes go to Seattle to film scenes for several episodes at once. Characters visit the park, which is near the intern house.
A small public viewpoint on the south slope of Queen Anne, open all day. Best at dusk.
West Comstock Street, Queen Anne · not pinned
Los Angeles Magazine places the house’s exterior on West Comstock Street in Queen Anne. Its interior and back yard are sets on the stages in Los Feliz.
Horton pictured the grand old craftsman houses of college towns, past their prime, now shared by students with little money. Zachary says the house has hardly changed, apart from the upstairs bedrooms when new interns move in.
A private home with people living in it. It is named by its street, never pinned or pictured. Stay on the pavement and leave them be.
On a scouting trip to Seattle before the pilot, designer Laurence Bennett and director Peter Horton were taken with Harborview, a light-brick campus on First Hill with helicopter pads.
Horton calls it a touchstone for the fictional hospital. It was an inspiration, not a filming place.
A working trauma hospital. Never treat it as an attraction: look from the street and keep the entrances clear.
Lower Queen Anne, Seattle
A hotel at 425 Queen Anne Avenue North, which says it is minutes from the Space Needle. KOMO Plaza is down the hill; Kerry Park is up it. Pictured: a Queen Anne corner, 2008.
Check roomsEnd of shift
Joe’s Bar, the Emerald City Bar, was filmed in the downstairs bar of McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern in Pasadena in early season-two episodes. A replica was later built on a stage. In May 2025 Architectural Digest reported that the crew had used West LA College for the hospital’s exteriors for the past three seasons.
8 places you can visit in Los Angeles and Seattle. The intern house is a private home, named by its street and left off the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio lot behind a gate at Prospect and Talmadge. There are no tours; see the gate from the street.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working veterans’ medical centre. Look from Plummer Street and the public car parks; do not film or wander in.
Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working community college on a hillside campus. The grounds are open; the classrooms are for students.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A bar address on Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Pasadena. It has been renamed since; check what trades there before you go.
Los Angeles · 4151 Prospect Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles
The show is set in Seattle and filmed at Prospect Studios in Los Feliz, on six soundstages.
A working studio lot behind a gate at Prospect and Talmadge. There are no tours; see the gate from the street.
Los Angeles · Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, 16111 Plummer Street, North Hills
For the pilot the team found Sepulveda VA Medical Center in North Hills. It became the hospital’s exterior and the inside of its airbridge.
A working veterans’ medical centre. Look from Plummer Street and the public car parks; do not film or wander in.
Los Angeles · 9000 Overland Avenue, between Culver City and Ladera Heights
In May 2025 Architectural Digest reported that the crew had used West LA College for the hospital’s exteriors for the past three seasons.
A working community college on a hillside campus. The grounds are open; the classrooms are for students.
Los Angeles · 72 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Old Pasadena
Joe’s Bar, the Emerald City Bar, was filmed in the downstairs bar of McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern in Pasadena in early season-two episodes.
A bar address on Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Pasadena. It has been renamed since; check what trades there before you go.
Stay
A hotel between the helipad roof and Kerry Park.
Lower Queen Anne, Seattle
A hotel at 425 Queen Anne Avenue North, which says it is minutes from the Space Needle. KOMO Plaza is down the hill; Kerry Park is up it. Pictured: a Queen Anne corner, 2008.
Check roomsGo there
The Needle above the helipad, and Seattle’s screen-location tours.
Seattle Center · General admission $35–$55
Timed tickets to the top of the Needle, a short walk from the helipad roof. Open daily from 10.30am Monday to Thursday and from 9 or 9.30am Friday to Sunday.
Plan a visitSeattle
Live marketplace results for Seattle tours of film and television locations. Check which stop at Queen Anne and Seattle Center.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Nothing dated for the show is listed at these places now.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
By the woman who made the show.
Shonda Rhimes
A memoir by the woman who created Grey’s Anatomy.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
9 of 9 places · 13 of 13 stories
4151 Prospect Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Grey’s Anatomy premieres on ABC; the hospital is built on stages in Los Feliz.
Hospital, Joe’s Bar and the intern house’s inside and back yard share six soundstages.
Bailey’s clinic becomes the lecture hall, Richard’s office or the attending lounge when its walls come out.
Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, 16111 Plummer Street, North Hills
The VA becomes the hospital’s exterior and airbridge, and its basement tunnels the interns’ refuge.
The first observation gallery is built in the VA’s gym.
Eric Dane and Patrick Dempsey film a scene outside the VA.
9000 Overland Avenue, between Culver City and Ladera Heights
West LA College becomes Grey Sloan’s exterior.
72 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Old Pasadena
Joe’s Bar is filmed in a real Pasadena bar before a replica is built.
140 Fourth Avenue North, beside Seattle Center
The roof of KOMO Plaza plays the hospital’s helipad.
400 Broad Street, Seattle Center
The Space Needle, a short walk from the helipad, is counted among the show’s Seattle locations.
211 West Highland Drive, Queen Anne
Ellen Pompeo films at Kerry Park for a season-two episode.
West Comstock Street, Queen Anne
A Queen Anne house plays the outside of the intern house; its rooms are in Los Feliz.
325 Ninth Avenue, First Hill
Before the pilot, Harborview gives the designers their sense of scale.
Every place in Grey’s Anatomy leads somewhere else.
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