Which real building is used for exterior shots of Pawnee City Hall?

Exterior shots of Pawnee City Hall in Parks and Recreation use Pasadena City Hall in Pasadena, California. The real building stands in Southern California, even though Pawnee is portrayed as a city in Indiana.

Pasadena City Hall was completed in 1927 as the central building of Pasadena’s civic center. Designed by Bakewell and Brown, it combines Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival elements, including its prominent dome and formal courtyard. Those recognizable features give the fictional Pawnee government building its distinctive appearance.

The series was filmed largely in Southern California. Pasadena City Hall supplied the exterior and some hallway scenes, while the Parks and Recreation Department interiors and the Town Hall courtyard were created on sound stages. This is why the show’s Indiana setting can look unmistakably Californian to local viewers.

The building is also a historic landmark. Pasadena City Hall and the surrounding civic center district were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. A major seismic retrofit took place from 2004 to 2007.