Why can't we all just get along?

The General Assembly Hall (“the GA”) is the largest conference room at the UN Headquarters in New York, occupying three floors of the building.  It is currently closed for remodeling, but for those of us with nostalgic leanings, it seems a good idea to reflect for a moment on the GA as it was, indeed as it was when I first encountered it, so you have a proper idea of the "before".  But don't worry, we'll come back and do the big "after" reveal later, when it finally reopens.

The GA Hall is 50 metres long, 35 metres wide and has a 23 metre-high ceiling.  The room was designed by a team of 11 architects, including Garnett Soilleux from Australia.  The design work was overseen by American Wallis Harrison, architectural adviser to the Rockefeller family (because every family needs one!).  

The room has seating capacity for 1,898 people (including the 193 Member State delegations).  Each delegation has six seats in the GA - three at the tables for full delegates, and three behind them for their alternates.   

The GA is the only conference room that features the UN emblem, but it does not contain any UN Member State gifts or flags.   

A pair of murals by French artist Fernand Léger were gifted anonymously to the UN Association of the United States, and were installed in the GA in 1952 - the same year that the General Assembly opened its seventh regular session. 

Hollywood has only received official permission to film inside the GA twice – first for scenes from “The Glass Wall” (1953) and then for Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn’s film, “The Interpreter” (2005). 

And while all of that is very nice, for me it pales in comparison to the film clip for Beyonce’s "I Was Here", filmed in the GA on World Humanitarian Day in August 2012.  I was lucky enough to go along for that, and I deliberately wore a hot pink dress so I'd be able to find myself on camera later (and I did, albeit the back of my head, and only fleetingly).  But I was there, and it was the most exciting thing to ever happen in the GA.  Unless of course you count October 18, 2012 VOTE DAY when Australia won its temporary seat on the UN Security Council - that was another top day for us too, of course.