what a thread!
found this photo on flickr. it shows the area in front of city hall, where a couple of large older buildings used to be. one of them (municipal archives or something?) was aligned to the old street grid and stood directly between city hall and the rest of the civic center area, but the one which was further south, it's foundation can still be seen in this photo. it was aligned to the new street grid, but why was it demolished I wonder? would have been nice to have another older style building in the civic center.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8426355...7594215614353/
in this older photo we can see the two demolished buildings
from LAPL