The American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy created by Shonda Rhimes for the ABC Network focuses on the lives of the medical professionals in Seattle Grace Hospital (now Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital).
The plotline centers on the life of the titular character Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who is accepted into the surgical residency program at the Seattle Grace Hospital. Subsequently, she forms friendships with her fellow interns in the hospital and builds a name for herself as she advances to the level of a resident, attending, and subsequently the chief of surgery.
The series is set in Seattle Washington. However, the filming takes place in Los Angeles, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Grey’s Anatomy filming locations
Rhimes first considered locating the medical drama in her hometown of Chicago but ultimately chose Seattle to distinguish Grey's Anatomy from the Chicago-based television series ER.
The following are the most common backdrops that have featured in the series:
Fisher Communications
The media corporation Fisher Communications, Inc. operates in the United States. The company was based in Seattle, Washington, and its main assets were television and radio stations throughout the Western United States. It was purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2013, making it the final company in the Seattle area to operate a local TV station.
Some exterior views of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital are taken from Fisher Plaza, the location of Sinclair's ABC-affiliated KOMO radio and television stations in Seattle, as well as the old headquarters of Fisher Communications (since merged into Sinclair Broadcast Group).
Komo Studio
KOMO-TV (channel 4) is an ABC-affiliated television station situated in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Sinclair Broadcast Group owns it with KUNS-TV (channel 51), a CW affiliate licensed in Bellevue.
The KOMO-TV news helicopter's helipad is where air ambulances land in the show, indicating that the hospital is close to the Space Needle (across the street from Fisher Plaza), the Seattle Monorail, and other famous sites.
North Hills, Los Angeles
North Hills, formerly known as Sepulveda, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California's San Fernando Valley.
Most exterior and interior shots were not taken in Seattle; instead, they were shot at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills, Los Angeles, California. Occasionally, shots from an inside corridor feature the dry California mountains in the distance.
Queen Anne, Seattle
The exterior of Meredith Grey's home, which is often referred to as the Intern House, is an actual location. Although it is not a real address, Grey's house address in the show is 613 Harper Lane. The actual residence can be found in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, at 303 W. Comstock St. The neighborhood of Queen Anne is located in Seattle, Washington's northwest.
The Prospect Studios
The majority of the scenes are shot at The Prospect Studios, which contains six sound stages for Grey's Anatomy. The Prospect Studios, also called ABC Television Center [West], is a complex of television studios located just east of Hollywood at 4151 Prospect Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is located at the intersection of Prospect and Talmadge Street, which is named for the silent film star Norma Talmadge.
Warren G. Magnuson Park
Warren G. Magnuson Park in Seattle serves as the backdrop for a few of the exterior scenes in the show. Magnuson Park is located in Seattle, Washington, near the Sand Point neighborhood. Magnuson Park stands on the Sand Point peninsula with Pontiac and Wolf bays that extend into Lake Washington in northeast Seattle, where the former Naval Station Puget Sound once stood.
Filming Techniques in Grey’s Anatomy
A working MRI machine is one of many pieces of medical equipment that are used as props in the show. Sarah Drew, who plays April Kepner, said as follows when questioned about scenes in the operating room:
"We work with bovine organs, which are cow's organs. The smell is repulsive and makes us all gag. And we use an actual soldering tool to solder the organs. It smells like burning flesh. There's also a lot of silicone and blood matter, red jello mixed with blood and chicken fat. It's pretty gross."
Attending surgeons and residents are distinguished by their costumes: residents wear light blue scrubs, whereas attending surgeons wear navy blue ones. Like many other dramas, the series is shot with a single camera. The "walk-and-talk" filming method, which was made popular by previous shows like St. Elsewhere, ER, and The West Wing, is frequently used in Grey's Anatomy.
FAQs about Grey’s Anatomy filming locations
No, Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t filmed in a real hospital. Most of the scenes in the show have been filmed in the Prospect Studios.
Grey’s Anatomy is filmed in LA, however, the hospital featured in the show is referenced from Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center in First Hill.
The exterior of Meredith Grey's home, which is often referred to as the Intern House, is an actual location. Although it is not a real address, Grey's house address in the show is 613 Harper Lane.
