The Dorchester from “Mannequin”

I’ve made no secret of my love for Mannequin over the past few months.  As I’ve mentioned, my sole reason for heading to Philadelphia this past September was to stalk locales from the 1987 comedy, one of which was The Dorchester, the building where Jonathan Switcher’s (Andrew McCarthy) girlfriend Roxie (Carole Davis) lived.  (You can read my posts on Jonathan’s apartment here and the eatery where Jonathan and Roxie dined here.  And don’t worry, I will be writing an extensive article on Wanamaker’s department store soon!)

Thankfully, the locale was an easy find.  Not only has The Dorchester’s appearance in Mannequin been well-documented online for years, but its name was clearly visible in the movie.

Construction on The Dorchester began in 1960.  The L-shaped concrete building, which opened to the public in 1964, was designed by Milton M. Schwartz & Associates.

The upscale, 32-story property boasts 545 individually-owned condominium units (or 542 depending on which website you happen to be reading), a gym, a rooftop pool, an underground garage, valet parking, an on-site spa, and a 24-hour doorman.

The building is situated just steps away from picturesque Rittenhouse Square, an oft-filmed park that I will be blogging about soon.

The Dorchester only appears once in Mannequin, in an early scene in which Jonathan attempts to apologize to Roxie for standing her up the night before.  His efforts are thwarted by Roxie’s amorous foreign co-worker, Armand (Christopher Maher), though, who shows up and offers Roxie a lift to work, calling out in his broken English, “Hey, hey, Roxie, you look foxy!  Can I ride you?”

That’s Rittenhouse Square visible behind Jonathan in the background of the scene.

I am 99.9% certain that the 80s-fabulous interior of Roxie’s condo was a set.  (Her gold lamé blouse fits right in with the décor!)  You can see what the actual interior of some Dorchester units look like here.

The Dorchester has also popped up in a few other productions.  The building’s lobby masked as the hospital that T.J. Hammond (Sebastian Stan) was discharged from in the Season 1 episode of Political Animals titled “Resignation Day,” which aired in 2012.  You can see photographs of the lobby here.

The Dorchester’s entrance was also used as the entrance to the building where Dr. Lena Solis (Alana De La Garza) lived on the 2013 television series Do No Harm.

Some filming of an as-of-yet untitled Kathryn Bigelow movie about the 1967 Detroit riots also took place at The Dorchester this past summer.

Though The Dorchester can’t be seen due to the fact that the camera is facing away from it, the street that runs along the building’s southern side was used in the 2010 romcom How Do You Know as the spot where Charles (Jack Nicholson) tries to tell George (Paul Rudd) that he thinks his phone is bugged.

That same area was also visible in the background of Mannequin.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Dorchester, aka Roxie’s condo from Mannequin, is located at 226 West Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.

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