Nicole Simpson’s Condo from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Today’s location is one of the most interesting that I’ve ever uncovered!  As I mentioned in Friday’s post about O.J. Simpson’s mansion from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (which proved to be rather timely considering the “buried knife” story that was released that same day), the Grim Cheaper and I are hooked on the new FX series.  Once I tracked down O.J.’s pad from the show, I set out to find the site that stood in for Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo.  And what I discovered turned out to be pretty intriguing.

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Nicole’s former Brentwood condo was located at 875 South Bundy Drive (the address has since been changed, but more on that in a bit).  It was there that her body and the body of her friend Ronald Goldman were found just after midnight on June 13th, 1994.  The site became an instant macabre tourist attraction and though put up for sale in October of that same year, just a few months after the murders, it lingered on the market until finally being sold in 1997 for around $590,000 ($200,000 under the asking price).  The new owner immediately set about remodeling the exterior of the 3,400-square-foot, three-story dwelling, which, according to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, boasted 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, several patios, and a rooftop sun deck.  (The same article also states that Nicole put the property up for lease just days before her death, a factoid that was new to me.)  In an effort to detract tourists, the front gate, walkway and entrance were drastically altered and the address was renumbered from 875 to 879.  The condo was once again put up for sale in 2006 and sold for a whopping $1.7 million.

You can see a photo of what the exterior of Nicole’s condo previously looked like here.  The residence is largely unrecognizable today, not to mention that the entryway is entirely covered over with foliage.

The GC and I visited the site way back in 2006 (it was for sale at the time, as you can see below) and the entryway was much more visible, though we did not take many photos of it.

The door to the neighboring unit, which was also altered after the murders and matches the layout of Nicole’s, is currently visible.  You can see what it looks like below.

Not only was the condo’s address changed and the front entrance remodeled, but the walkway (where Nicole’s body was found) was actually moved.  Comparison images taken of the walkway shortly after the murders in 1994 as compared to 2016 are pictured below.

More close-up comparison images are pictured below.

As you can see, the walkway was formerly situated just to the right of the large palm tree that stands in front of Nicole’s home.  Today, the walkway is located to the left of that tree.  The blue box in the lower photo denotes the previous site of the walkway.  As you can also see below, the drainage pipe and utility access panel are still located in the same spot in relation to the tree, which helps give a bearing as to the walkway’s prior positioning.

A close-up view of the walkway’s former location is pictured below.

Nicole’s rear gate, which is reached via an alley off of Dorothy Street and is where the killer supposedly entered and exited the property the night of the murders, has also been altered.

The rear gate of the neighboring unit (pictured below) does not appear to have been changed, though, and remains, I believe, in the same state that it was back in 1994.

I am guessing that the reason The People v. O.J. Simpson did not film at the actual condo was two-fold, due to both the alterations and the reticence of the current owners.

So where did filming take place?  Thanks to a February The Hollywood Reporter article, I learned that “a house a block away from Nicole Brown Simpson’s home was used as a stand-in” on the series.  The walkway and entrance shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson were an exact match to those of Nicole’s former condo, though.  Being that the chances of producers finding a walkway/front gate so closely resembling Nicole’s less than a block away from her former home were most likely slim to none, I figured they had heavily altered an existing walkway/front gate to look like hers.  When I started looking along Bundy Drive, though, I could not find anything even remotely resembling what appeared onscreen.  So I instead started searching for the homes that were visible across the street from Nicole’s in the pilot episode and wound up finding them right away – in the exact spot where The Hollywood Reporter said I would, a block away from Nicole’s condo.

Those houses can be found at 918 and 922 South Bundy Drive.

When I looked at what was across the street from those homes, though, I did not find a Mediterranean-style condominium complex as expected, but a non-descript, one-story single-family residence addressed 917 South Bundy.  It wasn’t until I really started scouring Street View images of the property that I realized the entire walkway shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson was a fabrication constructed in the home’s driveway.

Yes, you read that right – from what I have been able to gather, Nicole’s walkway on the series was built entirely from scratch in the area pictured below.

Some heavy CGI and set dressing were employed to achieve the effect.  As you can see below, not only was the image of a tall condominium building digitally added to the property, but a front wall, gate, walkway, lamp post, and large amount of foliage were also brought in.

In the images below, I’ve denoted the few things that were not altered.  The large palm tree located in front of the home is a direct match to what appeared onscreen (it’s marked with the blue arrow below).  The large pine tree behind the palm is also a direct match to what appeared onscreen (yellow arrow).  The tall skinny palm located towards the rear of the property also parallels what was shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson (purple arrow).  And you can even see where the dip of the driveway was temporarily filled in for the shoot (pink arrow).

A clean view of those same two images is pictured below.  The whole thing is absolutely fascinating to me!  I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to see it all in person.

I’ve got to give the production designer major props because the faux walkway is an exact replica of Nicole’s, which you can see an image of here.

The street in front of 917 South Bundy got a lot of screen time, too.

You can check out some interior photographs of the 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,154-square-foot home here.

All interior filming took place at a building located just a couple of blocks away.

 

That building can be found at 11978 Mayfield Avenue and it does bear a striking resemblance to Nicole’s actual former home.

The interior of Nicole’s condo was shown in two episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson, “From the Ashes of Tragedy” and “The Race Card.”  You can see photos of the inside of one of the Mayfield Avenue units here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The exterior of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo was recreated in the driveway of the house at 917 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood for the filming of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.  Interior scenes were filmed at 11978 Mayfield Avenue in Brentwood.  Nicole’s real life former condo is located at 879 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood.