I was recently on the UCLA campus (University of California Los Angeles) and I saw the Bunche Hall. I love the design and the architecture of the building. However I saw a little (what I would call) a closet with no door on the side but it was just three walls with a roof, extremely small, underneath the stairs, outdoors, a bit below the floor level. There is a small alley and then you take two stairs down and the closets face a fall.
I don't even know what to call it. My question is, from architectural/structural engineering point of view, what is this building device? Why is it there? What is its purpose? What is it even called? The two closets reminded of telephone booths but there was nothing but dirt, cobwebs, and leaves in there. Were they once used for something? I am posting the pictures below.