famous buildings – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 15, 2020June 14, 2020

The Howard Motor Company Building from “The Mentalist”

I always play tourist in my own town. Never was that more the case then when I resided in Pasadena. The area is so chock-full of notable locales, though, that sometimes it takes a newcomer to point them out. My friend Kim recently embarked upon her first visit to Crown City (it was socially-distanced, of course!) and in poring through the Facebook photos she posted that day, I was pleasantly surprised to see pics of the Howard Motor Company Building! Though Kim took note of the gorgeous structure immediately upon passing it, I drove by daily while living in Pasadena and even once witnessed The Mentalist filming on the premises, but somehow never dedicated a post to the place! So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and I headed over there shortly thereafter.

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The Howard Motor Company Building was designed in 1927 by the Austin Company of California architecture firm.

The Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure served as an automobile showroom for the dealership through 1938, at which time the Busch-Morgan Motor Company moved in.

The stunning building continued to operate as a car gallery through at least 1996.

The ornate edifice, with its spectacular California Churrigueresque detailing, was intended to attract passersby traveling along the popular Route 66, get them to stop, and hopefully buy a new car. The concept certainly worked on my friend Kim who immediately pulled over to get a better look at the place.

The Howard Motor Company Building is easily one of Pasadena’s most beautiful structures.

The interior is just as incredible as the exterior!

Sadly, the property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has been tenantless for pretty much as long as I remember, though it sometimes houses a Spirit Halloween store in the Fall.

The long-term vacancy left it open for the filming of The Mentalist in November 2009. My dad and I happened to be driving by when the shoot was being set up and, of course, stopped to watch.

Though I don’t have any photos from that day, we were invited inside to take a peek at the space with all of its glorious set dressing and, let me tell you, the Howard Motor Company Building was definitely ready for its close-up!

In the episode, Season 2’s “Redline,” which aired in February 2010, the site portrayed the supposed Marin County Zenith Motors showroom, where Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and the CBI team investigated the murder of a woman found stuffed inside the trunk of a car. The program showcased both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the space to spectacular effect!

With the red carpeting, extensive foliage and up-lighting, the episode really gives us an idea of what the building must have looked like back in its heyday.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for reminding me of this location! 🙂

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine, and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Howard Motor Company Building, from the “Redline” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 1285 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

June 10, 2020June 8, 2020

The Deco Building from “Hollywood”

Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix series, Hollywood, is worth a watch for a slew of reasons, not the least of which is its locations. The Los Angeles featured in the 1940s-set show is nothing short of jaw-dropping! Even the seemingly mundane spots like the bank Jack Costello (David Corenswet) and his wife, Henrietta (Maude Apatow), briefly visit in episode 1 are drool-inducing! So I, of course, set out to ID it! Countless Zigzag Moderne elements were visible dotted around the striking space, leading me to do a Google search for “Art Deco,” “bank,” and “Los Angeles.” One of the first results kicked back was this L.A. Conservancy page detailing The Deco Building at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park. I had never heard of the place, but headed right over to Google Images and was floored at what I saw – a pristine Art Deco time capsule hidden away on a busy L.A. street. Despite its stunning exterior, I had driven by countless times without even realizing it was there! I decided to promptly amend that by doing some socially-distant stalking of it just a few days later.

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The Deco Building was originally constructed as the Security-First National Bank in 1929. You can check out a photo of it from its early days here.

Designed by the Morgan, Walls and Clements architecture firm, the exterior is clad in stunning black and gold terracotta tile.

Sadly, it is one of the only black and gold Art Deco structures still standing in the city.

The Deco Building operated as a bank until 1970 and subsequently went through several different incarnations including a gold and silver wholesale dealership, a Persian rug showroom, and a cabaret/private club known as Zephyr. Following a restoration in 1999, the site was transformed into upscale office space.

Though the exterior is spectacular, it is the inside that is the real stunner.

The two-story space, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, features high ceilings, a mezzanine, gilded skylights, and intricate chandeliers. The vault, visible at the back of my photos above and below, even remains intact!

Considering its gorgeously preserved architecture, it is no surprise that the property wound up in a production like the historically-set Hollywood.

In the premiere episode, titled “Hooray for Hollywood,” Jack and Henrietta head to the bank building hoping to secure a $20,000 loan to buy a home, but they are unsuccessful.

Though brief, the scene is pivotal as the loan denial pushes Jack to agree to work as an escort at Golden Tip Gasoline, thereby setting off the series’ main storyline.

The short segment also gives us fabulous glimpses of The Deco Building’s interior and all of its grand detailing.

Hollywood is not the site’s only small-screen foray.

The Deco Building portrays the headquarters for Governor Charles Brooks’ (Richard Burgi) re-election campaign in the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Bullet Bump,” which aired in 2010.

And J (Issa Rae) has a job interview there in the Season 2 episode of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl titled “The Call,” which aired in 2013.

The Deco Building also boasts a Disney connection! A portion of the Mickey’s of Hollywood store at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios was modeled after the structure. You can check out an image of it here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine, and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Deco Building, aka the bank from the “Hooray for Hollywood” episode of Hollywood, is located at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park.

April 10, 2020April 9, 2020

The Fine Arts Building from “The Morning Show”

Considering I’ve been at this crazy hobby of mine for twenty years now, you’d think I’d have stalked every square inch of Los Angeles. While watching the second episode of The Morning Show, though, I was reminded of a site I had yet to set foot in – downtown’s Fine Arts Building. I’d heard of the celebrated property countless times, seen photos of its impressive lobby online and read up on its history, but somehow had never visited. So while in the area last December, I decided to amend that and got my first look at the marvel that is the Fine Arts Building.

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The landmark structure, a commission of the Fine Arts Building Company, was erected in 1926.

The 12-story, 107,000-square-foot property, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architects Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen (who also gave us the Oviatt Building, the Gaylord Apartments and the Beverly Wilshire, aka the Pretty Woman hotel), initially housed studios, workshops, and galleries for local Los Angeles artists.

The impressive terra cotta exterior features castings by Burt William Johnson, including two figures perched on either side of the third-floor overhang, one symbolizing architecture and the other sculpture.

Though the ornate façade is nothing to sneeze at . . .

. . . the sweeping two-story lobby, designed in the Spanish Renaissance style, is the real stunner.

Almost unbelievably so!

Featuring tile work by Pasadena artist Ernest Batchelder, paintings and murals by Anthony B. Heinsbergen, a beamed ceiling, a blue-tiled fountain, and 17-foot-tall glass display cases which initially served as a place for resident artists to exhibit their wares, the 3,000-square-foot chamber truly is a sight to be seen.

Sadly, the Great Depression hit the artisans who rented space in the structure hard, causing many of them to terminate their leases and the property to be sold in 1930. It was then rebranded the “Signal Oil Building.” It went through numerous ownership and name changes in the years that followed until being taken over by the Ratkovich, Bowers Inc. development firm in 1983, at which time it was heavily rehabilitated and its original moniker restored.

Today, the Historic-Cultural Monument houses business offices, though the lobby remains a place for local artists to exhibit their works.

The Fine Arts Building serves as the office of Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) business manager, where he gets some bad news regarding his financial status following his firing, in the Season 1 episode of The Morning Show titled “A Seat at the Table.” It is as Mitch is walking out of the structure that he is accosted by a stranger who screams “Rapist!”, to which he not-so-calmly replies, “I’m not even accused of rape! Sexual misconduct is what I’m being accused of! Don’t you wave your f*cking hand at me! Have a nice day, you f*cking asshole!” I spotted the “811” address placard and the ornate carvings flanking the front doors as Mitch exited the building just before being yelled at and recognized the place immediately.

I believe the interior scene involving Mitch’s business manager’s office may have been shot elsewhere, though I am not sure where.

The Fine Arts Building is no stranger to the screen.

The site portrayed a Swiss Embassy in the 1997 action film Spawn.

It popped up as the location of Jane’s (Angelina Jolie) I-Temp Technology Staffing office in 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

And Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) shows Summer (Zooey Deschanel) the building, which he misattributes to architects Walker & “Eisner,” in the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Fine Arts Building, from the “A Seat at the Table” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 811 West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The lobby area is open to the public daily. 7th Street/Metro Center Station, aka Penn Station from Cruel Intentions, is right next door at 660 South Figueroa Street.

January 22, 2020April 27, 2020

Mitch’s New York Condo from “The Morning Show”

It’s been a minute (literally) since I’ve blogged about a location from The Morning Show, but, don’t worry, I’ve still got a few more up my sleeve – namely the modern building that served as beleaguered television host Mitch Kessler’s (Steve Carell) New York pied-à-terre. I had a hunch that the property was most likely in the downtown L.A. area (though set in NYC, the vast majority of the new Apple TV+ series was lensed in Los Angeles) and that hunch turned out to be correct. And I have my beloved Starbucks to thank for leading me to it!

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While scrutinizing one of the scenes featuring Mitch’s building, I noticed a Starbucks situated diagonally across from it (it’s denoted with a yellow arrow below, though the signage is a bit tough to make out due to some rather frenetic camera movement in the segment). The Starbucks is actually one I know well as it is a frequent stop whenever the Grim Cheaper and I are in the area. In fact, we even once randomly ran into Chas, of the Its Filmed There website, at the café, so it seems to be a popular sojourn spot for many stalkers! Once I recognized the place, I simply used Google Street View to head over to its location at the corner of 11th Street and South Grand Avenue and then rotated the screen around until I landed on the building kitty-corner from it. As it turns out, Mitch’s New York home can be found at 1050 South Grand.

Known as Ten50 in real life, the 25-story property, developed by Trumark Urban and designed by HansonLA, was completed in 2016.

The contemporary building is made up of 151 one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and penthouse condos.

Just about as upscale as it gets, Ten50’s amenities include concierge service, a fitness studio with an outdoor yoga deck, meeting space, gated parking with over thirty spots for electric vehicles, a screening room, a business center, a club lounge, and a fifth-floor sun deck with a pool, spa, cabanas, BBQs, indoor/outdoor kitchens, and a fireplace.

The building also boasts the city’s first landing pad made especially for drone deliveries. (I’m guessing that feature doesn’t get utilized much.)

Mitch’s building does not show up until the ninth episode of The Morning Show, titled “Play the Queen,” in which the fallen anchor returns to New York to try to orchestrate an interview with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon). The lobby of Ten50, which you can see photos of here and here, is featured early in the episode.

Hannah Schoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) also later confronts Mitch about her assault outside of the building.

And I was thrilled to discover while poking around images of various Ten50 units I found online that the actual interior of Penthouse 2 was used as Mitch’s condo! Per a recent real estate listing, in which the unit was offered for a whopping $5,699,000, the 2-level space was custom–built by the Brown Design Group and boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 30-foot ceilings, 3,930 square feet, a whiskey den, floor-to-ceiling windows, a galley kitchen with Wolf and Sub Zero appliances, a large wrap-around balcony, a bonus balcony off the master bedroom, and an upper-level terrace. Worth every penny, I say! The place is pretty much my ideal living space. You can check out a video of the absolutely exquisite interior here.

As you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS photos above and below, it appears that The Morning Show made use of some of the condo’s actual furnishings including the kitchen island bar stools and the dining table.

The unit also appeared in the Season 1 finale of The Morning Show, titled “The Interview.” Not only do Mitch, Bradley, Chip Black (Mark Duplass), and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) powwow about Mitch’s upcoming secret interview in Penthouse 2’s living room . . .

. . . but Cory also later has a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mitch in the same spot and, in one of my favorite monologues from the series, very profoundly advises Mitch to confess to his assaults.

And it is in Ten50’s lobby that Mitch and Chip get into a fistfight at the end of the episode.

Thanks to fellow stalker Brett, I learned that Mitch’s penthouse is also where Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) lived in the recently-aired Season 3 episode of Westworld titled “The Absence of Field.”

And thanks to fellow stalker Tyler, I learned that the penthouse played the Moscow condo where Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) resided in the series finale of Homeland, titled “Prisoners of War.”

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile
Stalk It: Ten50, aka Mitch’s “New York” building from The Morning Show, is located at 1050 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.

December 9, 2019April 23, 2020

611 Place from “The Morning Show”

I hope y’all aren’t sick of The Morning Show locations yet, cause I’ve got a few more up my sleeve, namely the site that portrays UBA Studios, where the titular show-within-the-show is filmed on the new Apple TV+ series. At first blush, I thought the locale was most likely in New York, where the program is set and partially filmed. But once I identified the Starbucks at 6th and Grand in downtown L.A. as the spot where Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is invited to a birthday party in episode 4, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” I quickly realized that the UBA scenes were lensed right across the street at a towering structure known as 611 Place. Fortunately, I happened to be in DTLA just a few days after my discovery, so I popped by to check it out.

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Constructed as the headquarters for Crocker-Citizens Bank in 1969, the building originally went by the name Crocker-Citizens Plaza.

The formidable modernist structure was designed by architect William Pereira, who also gave us Fox Plaza (aka Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard), Farralone (aka the former Frank Sinatra estate), and the Disneyland Hotel.

The 42-story cross-shaped tower, which sits atop a four-level block base, boasts vertical steel beaming, 715,000 square feet of office and retail space, a marble-clad lobby, and a ground-floor bank complete with a vault.

At 620 feet, Crocker-Citizens Plaza was the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time of its completion (and only the second to surpass the height of City Hall), a record it held briefly until ARCO Plaza (now City National Plaza) was constructed in 1972.

When Crocker-Citizens Bank vacated the locale in 1983, it was purchased by AT&T and renamed AT&T Center, though many referred to it (and still refer to it, in fact) as the AT&T Building.

AT&T’s tenure ended in 1999, at which point the Chetrit Group, a New York-based development firm, acquired the building and it was re-named once again, this time to 611 Place, in honor of its 611 West 6th Street address.

Per the Urbanize Los Angeles website, the upper floors have been mostly vacant for a decade and, while Chetrit is said to have obtained entitlements way back in 2007 to transform the office spaces into condos, those plans have yet to come to fruition. When I was stalking the place, though, I saw plenty of people coming and going from the elevators, making their way through the large lobby, so I am not sure how empty the building actually is. Regardless, filming is definitely one way the site is bringing in revenue.

611 Place repeatedly pops up as UBA Studios on The Morning Show.

The series makes use of the building’s Grand Avenue side.

Unfortunately, a UPS truck was parked right in front of the Grand Avenue entrance when I attempted to take a matching shot of the screen capture below, so Google Street View imagery will have to do.

It is not hard to see how 611 Place wound up on The Morning Show as it does very much have the look and feel of a New York building, especially with its brass revolving door which Bradley, Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) are regularly seen entering and exiting.

Some CGI trickery was employed to add to the building’s NYC feel in episode 4, “That Woman.” As you can see, imagery of the iconic Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue was superimposed in the background of a scene taking place outside of 611 Place.

The special effects team wasn’t very thorough, though, because seconds later, the Edwards & Wildey Building, the actual structure located in that spot, is clearly visible where Cartier stood just moments before.

The lobby of 611 Place also regularly appears on The Morning Show.

The friendly security guard on duty during my stalk was nice enough to allow me to snap interior photos of the lobby and even pointed out which areas of it were used! As you can see below, some turnstiles were added to the premises for the shoot, as were sconces above the elevator.

The interior of the actual studio where the show-within-the-show is shot was nothing more than a set built inside of a soundstage on the Sony lot in Culver City.

611 Place is actually a longtime screen star.

Way back in 1973, William Dorn (Chuck Connors) set off a bomb outside of the building, killing himself in the process, at the end of The Police Connection, aka The Mad Bomber.

611 Place served as the headquarters of MacGregor Oil in the 1983 drama Uncommon Valor.

That same year, it popped up as the office building where Caroline Butler (Teri Garr) worked in the comedy Mr. Mom.

Pinball’s (Dave Chappelle) body is tossed from a plane and lands on a car in front of 611 Place in the 1997 thriller Con Air.

It is seen briefly as the casualty of an earthquake in the 2000 disaster flick Epicenter.

The now vacant bank space on the building’s lower level is where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) heads to empty his safety deposit box in 2003’s Matchstick Men.

Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown) base jumps off the neighboring KPMG Center at 550 South Hope Street in the 2004 romcom Along Came Polly, giving audiences a brief view of 611 Place during his descent.

And it recently popped up as the FBI office Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) and Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) visited in the Season 6 episode of Bosch titled “Good People on Both Sides.”

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: 611 Place, aka UBA Studios from The Morning Show, is located at 611 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The Starbucks featured in the series’ fifth episode, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” is right across the street at 523 West 6th Street.

December 2, 2019November 28, 2019

The CalEdison from “The Morning Show”

L.A. never ceases to amaze! Case in point – the CalEdison. Built in 1931, the Art Deco masterpiece is not only a sight to behold, but its grand lobby is open to the public! Somehow though, I never knew about the place until last week when I was researching locations from The Morning Show.

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During my viewing of the new Apple TV+ series’ premiere episode, “In the Dark Night of the Soul It’s Always 3:30 in the Morning,” I became a bit mesmerized with what was said to be the Archer Gray Hotel in New York. With towering marble columns, ornate tile flooring, and intricate wrought-iron windows, the space was striking to say the least. Shocked I had never come across it in all my years of stalking, I immediately set out to track it down. Because The Morning Show is largely filmed in L.A., with only a few exteriors shot in NYC, I knew the Archer Gray had to be somewhere in SoCal. Its seemingly historic architecture led me to look first in the downtown area. But Google searches for “historic building,” “grand lobby,” and “marble columns” did not bring up images that even remotely resembled the place.

It was not until episode 5, “No One’s Going to Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” aired that I was able to pinpoint it. In a scene at the close of the episode, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) attempts to secure the room number of her boss Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) from an uncooperative Archer Gray front desk clerk, during which a massive mural is visible behind her, as well as what appeared to be a coffee bar of some sort. Adding those elements to my search terms led me straight to The CalEdison, a historic office building in the heart of downtown. I was elated to discover upon researching the place further that it is open to the public! My parents just happened to be heading into L.A. a few days after my discovery and had booked a room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, located right across the street from The CalEdison. So I, of course, tagged along and ran right over to stalk the building immediately upon check-in.

The 14-story structure originally served as the headquarters of Southern California Edison and was known, appropriately, as the Southern California Edison Building.

Designed by the Allison & Allison architecture firm (who also gave us the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall), the property’s gorgeous exterior features a limestone and terracotta façade, bas-reliefs sculpted by artist Merrell Gage, and a towering two-story entry portico.

It is the interior that is the real stunner, though!

The expansive lobby boasts over 17 varieties of marble, 30-foot coffered ceilings, a mural painted by Hugo Ballin, and stunning friezes above each elevator.

Even the trash cans are elegant! And those building directories!

The CalEdison is more than just a pretty face, though. As the first seismically-retrofitted building in L.A., as well as the first to be electrically heated and cooled, it was incredibly technologically advanced.

Boasting 250,000 square feet of office space, The CalEdison cost a whopping $2.5 million to construct.

When SoCal Edison sold the place in 1972 in order to relocate to Rosemead, it was renamed One Bunker Hill. Its stellar architecture was mutilated in the decade that followed – its ceilings dropped, walls removed, and large fourth-floor patios enclosed with glass casings. I actually really like the look of the latter, which have been described as “greenhouse-like structures.” You can see what they looked like here. Thankfully, the lobby was left untouched during the renovations.

In October 2015, the grand building was bought by Hermes Investment Management of London, Limestone Investments and Rising Realty Partners for $92 million. The group renamed it The CalEdison and set about bringing the site back to its original glory, as well as renovating the many upstairs office spaces into creative work sites. The patio casings were also removed as part of the project. Though I wish those casings had been left intact, the rest of the work performed can only be described as perfection.

GreekOak Real Estate bought out both Hermes and Limestone earlier this year for $140 million, though Rising Realty continues to hold on to its share of the property.

While walking around the vast lobby, I couldn’t help but think how fabulous is it that this masterpiece exists and that it is open to the public for Angelinos and tourists alike to enjoy.

On The Morning Show, the Archer Gray Hotel is where network exec Cory checks in upon arriving in New York to deal with the fallout from the firing of Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell). Bradley also moves there in episode 5 after being relocated from The Standard, where she was initially put up. Only the lobby of the building is featured on the series. (My photo below is a little off on the angling, but shows the same area of The CalEdison as is pictured in the screen capture.)

Bradley’s room . . .

. . . as well as Corey’s are both just studio-built sets.

And the exterior of the Archer Gray Hotel is a building in New York that I have yet to identify.

The Morning Show is not CalEdison’s only claim to fame!

The building is also seen briefly in the 1953 noir The Bigamist in the scene in which Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) first arrives in L.A.

The property was used for interior shots of the office building Davey Osbourne (Henry Thomas) and Kim Gardener (Christina Nigra) try to infiltrate in 1984’s Cloak & Dagger.

Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) gets arrested for robbing a bank at The CalEdison before being rescued by Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) in the 2001 thriller Ocean’s Eleven.

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) almost gets arrested there in the Season 8 episode of 24 titled “11:00am-12:00pm,” which aired in 2010.

That same year, the building served as the office of Victor Racine (Michael Ironside) in the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “Den of Thieves.”

Narcy (Paz Vega) heads to the bank on The CalEdison’s lower level to empty her dead husband’s safety deposit box in the 2015 Lifetime television movie Beautiful & Twisted.

During the second season of Big Little Lies, which aired in 2019, the offices of Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, located on CalEdison’s 12th floor, portrayed the office of lawyer Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), as I detailed in this post. (I learned this tidbit thanks to a reader, but because only the 12th floor appeared in the episodes, I never took a look at images of the lobby or the rest of the building, which is why I was unfamiliar with it prior to trying to track down the Archer Gray.)

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The CalEdison, aka the Archer Gray Hotel from The Morning Show, is located at 601 West 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building’s lobby is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019

The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa from “American Woman”

I’m taking a break from my regularly scheduled Big Little Lies reporting today to bring you a post about one of my favorite buildings in all of Pasadena – The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa. I’ve written about the Mid-Century Modern apartment complex and its cameo in That Thing You Do! before – way back in November 2013 – but last June, my friend/fellow stalker Kim sent me a photo of the place after seeing it pop up on American Woman, asking if I had any idea where it was. It since went on to be featured prominently on the 2018 series (which has sadly been cancelled and won’t be returning for a second season), so I figured the site was worthy of a redo and stopped by for another stalk of it while passing through Crown City last week.

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The spectacular Neo-Formalist style property was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, who also gave us New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The structure, completed in 1958, originally served as the headquarters and plant of the Stuart Pharmaceutical Company.

The Mid-Century masterpiece boasts a myriad of striking architectural elements including saucer-like chandeliers, an arcade formed by cast concrete block screens, a long reflecting pool with fountains (which were not turned on the day I visited), gold columns, and pristine grounds designed by landscape architect Thomas Church.

Stuart Pharmaceutical’s forward-thinking owner Arthur O. Hanisch believed in creating a work environment that would foster both the health and comfort of his many employees. As such, he had a plethora of then unique recreational amenities added to the complex including a pool, a pool house, a shaded pavilion, a garden court, a dining hall/lounge, and a terrace. The original pool is actually still intact today and is pictured below.

Though the outside of The Stuart is stunning . . .

. . . it is the inside that sets my heart aflutter.

The two-story atrium that serves as the lobby’s centerpiece is nothing short of perfection!

Boasting massive hanging planters, globe lights, an open staircase, a coffered ceiling and textured wall paneling, the space is spectacular to behold.

It’s like the quintessential layout from a 1950s advertisement!

Or a Mad Men set come to life!

As architectural historian Lauren Weiss Bricker stated in a 2004 Future Anterior article, Hanisch hoped to “build a completely new building concept. He wanted his building to conform to the landscaping, not in the general California way but in a way that would combine timeless beauty with increased efficiency and a utilization of the Southern California climate to make for maximum comfort for his employees, both in working and recreation areas.” I’d say he succeeded! I can’t even imagine getting to work in such a beautiful space.

You can check out what The Stuart originally looked like here. Amazingly, not much of its interior or exterior has changed over the years, though it did go through its fair share of trying times.

Shortly after the Stuart Pharmaceutical Company merged with Johnson & Johnson/Merck Pharmaceuticals in 1990, the building was shuttered and then eventually put on the market. In 1994, the Metropolitan Transit Authority snapped it up and, in a horrific turn, made plans to raze it to build a . . . parking lot. Thankfully, the Pasadena Heritage Group stepped in, securing the property’s placement on the National Registry of Historic Places, thereby saving it from demolition. The group couldn’t save the building from the vandals and vagrants that descended upon it during the years it sat vacant, though, and it suffered major damage and theft. It was finally purchased by BRE Properties in 2002 and underwent a massive renovation helmed by preservation architect Robert Chattel during which the site was turned into a mixed-used apartment complex/performing arts center. The 188-unit The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa opened its doors to new residents in 2007. Though some ancillary structures were torn down during the renovation, the original main headquarters, which serves as a leasing office and communal space, was left largely intact, as was the pool, behind which the residential buildings were erected, as you can see below.

On American Woman, The Stuart masks as the supposed Wilshire Boulevard May Company department store where Bonnie Nolan (Alicia Silverstone) gets a job after leaving her philandering husband. It initially shows up in the series’ second episode titled “Changes and the New Normal,” first in the scene in which Bonnie shops for a suit prior to meeting with an employment agent and then as the spot where she puts her interest in fashion to good use by landing a saleswoman gig.

That episode saw some on location filming at the building.

As did the episodes titled “The Breakthrough” . . .

. . . and “I Will Survive.”

But for the most part, The Stuart was utilized in establishing shots.

And only the exterior of it appeared onscreen.

Interiors were shot on a set built at Warner Bros. Studio where American Woman was lensed.

The series is hardly the only production to feature The Stuart.

The Wonders pose for publicity photos in the building’s atrium in 1996’s That Thing You Do!

The Stuart portrays the fertility clinic that Kal (Ellen DeGeneres) and Fran (Sharon Stone) visit in the “2000” segment of the 2000 made-for-television movie If These Walls Could Talk 2.

And in the Season 2 episode of Animal Kingdom titled “Betrayal,” which aired in 2017, The Stuart serves as the office of Morgan Wilson (Laura San Giacomo).

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for alerting me to this location’s appearance on American Woman!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, aka the May Company department store from American Woman, is located at 3360 East Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the complex’s official website here.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

The John Ferraro Building

I was recently interviewed for an exciting new project (more details to come) and in my talks with producers beforehand was asked if I had any ideas about where the interview could take place. They were hoping to meet up at a filming location that I felt best represented the spirt of L.A. I didn’t hesitate in my answer – the John Ferraro Building. The strikingly gorgeous structure is not only an onscreen stalwart and an icon of Los Angeles architecture, but it uniquely serves as both a notable part of the city skyline and one of the best places to view it. I have covered the place countless times on my site – in a 2010 post, on My Must-Stalk List, in the “See” section of my 2015 Guide to L.A., to name a few – as well as for other entities, including my article on the Top 10 Science Fiction Locations for Discover Los Angeles and a blurb about must-see locales for the September 2018 issue of Los Angeles magazine. My love for the John Ferraro Building is prolific. While walking the perimeter of the property prior to my interview last week, I realized that in all my chronicling of it, I had yet to do a deep dive into its vast filming history, so I thought it only appropriate to amend that.

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Designed in 1965 by A.C. Martin & Associates, the Modernist/Corporate International-style structure was “green” before being green was even a thing. Built to house the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the architecture firm innovatively incorporated both elements into the design in the most unique way.

The building, which features concrete slabs cantilevered between towering glass walls, boasts specially-built ceilings on each of its 17 floors that absorb heat from the lighting system, helping to keep the property warm during cooler temperatures (yes, L.A. does get some of those) and at night.

As for water, the dramatic structure sits atop a 625 x 350-foot moat-like reflecting pool containing 2-million gallons of the stuff, portions of which are pumped through the HVAC system to cool the interior, essentially carrying 1/3 of the entire air conditioning load.

The pool and its eight fountains also make for some incredible views, the likes of which can’t be found anywhere else in the city.

I mean, come on!

I challenge you to find a prettier spot in all of L.A.

Last one, I promise.

Originally known as the DWP’s General Office Building (GOB), the property was renamed the John Ferraro Building in 2000 in honor of L.A.’s longest-serving city councilman.

The distinctive 287-foot-tall site is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1022.

Most of my photos in this post come from past visits to the LADWP. While we were there last week, the site was undergoing some sort of maintenance and the typically stunning reflecting pool was dry and the plentiful fountains shut off, as you can see below.

Despite this fact, the building was still dazzling to look at.

Considering LADWP’s beauty, it is no surprise that the place is a frequent film star. What is surprising is all of the misinformation about its various cameos floating around online. But more on that in a bit.

Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) jogs around the building in the 1971 Sci-Fi classic The Omega Man.

Jerry Landers (John Denver) gets interviewed by God (George Burns) at the LADWP, which is said to be located at 1600 Hope Street, in the 1977 comedy Oh, God!, though not much of the building is shown in the scene.

The property portrays a courthouse, where the two young winners of a traffic safety essay contest are interviewed – and mistakenly kidnapped – in the Season 3 episode of CHiPs titled “Kidnap,” which aired in 1980.

Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) explains to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) what a Terminator is in the building’s parking garage in 1984’s The Terminator. It is the rear side of the parking lot, on 1st Street, that Reese drives in and out of in the scene.

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “All Things,” which aired in 2000, the John Ferraro Building masks as the exterior of Washington National Hospital, where Dana Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) former professor is being treated.

John Hancock (Will Smith) holds a news conference at the LADWP to announce that he is heading to prison in the 2008 action flick Hancock.

The site appeared regularly as FBI Headquarters on the short-lived television series FlashForward, which debuted in 2009.

During the first season of Pretty Little Liars, which started airing in 2010, Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) gets a job at her ex-boyfriend’s mother’s dental office, shown in establishing shots to be located at the LADWP, in order to work off the damage she caused by crashing his car.

That same year, the site popped up very briefly as the exterior of a CIA building in the Season 3 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Subway.”

Also in 2010, the LADWP served as a dream world in Inception. It is in the building’s reflecting pool that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), conceived reconstructions of homes from their past, which were, of course, just CGI creations.

The interior of the property also appears briefly in the film. As Cobb leads Ariadne (Ellen Page) inside, he says, “We both wanted to live in a house, but we loved this type of building. In the real world, we’d have to choose, but not here.” He then takes her upstairs to his “residence,” which is supposedly located a short elevator ride away, but can actually be found about ten miles north at 215 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) randomly run in to each other at a farmers’ market taking place at the LADWP in the 2011 romcom No Strings Attached.

In 2012, Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King) told Terrell (Michael Jace) that she was expecting his baby at the John Ferraro Building in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Thursday.”

The locale pops up briefly in some establishing imagery of what is supposedly the Department of Justice in 2016’s The Nice Guys.

Melinda’s (Punam Patel) “fountain unveiling” in the Season 2 episode of Adam Ruins Everything titled “Adam Ruins the Future,” which aired in 2017, takes place at the LADWP.

In The Rookie, which began airing in 2018, the LADWP portrays the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mid-Wilshire Station.

Now that we’ve covered a plethora of the productions that LADWP has been in, let’s debunk some of that erroneous info I mentioned earlier. There is so much of it swirling around the internet that writing this post felt more like a disproving of the false reporting of the building’s film history than a chronicling of its many appearances.

Though several websites claim that the LADWP masked as Washington, D.C.’s Bureau of Internal Revenue at the beginning of 1964’s What a Way to Go!, that is incorrect. Filming actually took place at the Gateway West Building, once located at 1801 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The structure was demolished in 2015 as part of the Westfield Century City expansion, but you can see what it formerly looked like here.

LADWP wasn’t a courthouse in the Season 6 episode of Adam-12 titled “Clinic on 18th Street,” which aired in 1974, either. That building is actually the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center located just a few blocks away at 210 West Temple Street.

Nor did it portray the 14th Street Precinct in the 1980s television series Cagney & Lacey as has been reported. The confusion on this one is semi-understandable, though, being that filming took place at another downtown L.A. DWP site – the Central District Facility located at 1350 South Wall Street. Sadly, the exact building utilized has since been torn down, though.

It has also been reported that the John Ferraro Building played the Tacoma Police Department in the 1989 comedy Three Fugitives. That location, though, is actually the very same former Central District Facility building from Cagney & Lacey.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The John Ferraro Building, aka the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is located at 111 North Hope Street in downtown L.A. The facility’s lobby is open to the pubic each weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

July 9, 2018July 8, 2018

The Benjamin N. Duke House from “The First Wives Club”

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, I think revenge movies are a dish best served with a side of comedy. The Other Woman? 9 to 5? The Sting? The First Wives Club? All perfection! The latter is one of my ultimate favorites, so when I saw the address of the spectacular Upper East Side townhouse where wealthy socialite Gunilla Garson Goldberg (Maggie Smith) lived in the 1996 flick listed in the book Manhattan on Film, I promptly added it to my To-Stalk List for my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple. The Beaux Arts-style structure, known as the Benjamin N. Duke House in real life, turned out to be even more stunning in person than it appeared onscreen. It is easily one of the prettiest pads I have ever laid eyes upon!

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The Benjamin N. Duke House, also known as the Duke Semans Mansion, was originally constructed as part of a spec development of four adjacent Fifth Avenue estates. Brothers William W. and Thomas M. Hall commissioned the Welch, Smith & Provot architecture firm to design the elaborate dwellings. Sadly, the Duke house is the only one that remains standing today.

Completed in 1901, the 8-story property boasts a stately limestone and brick edifice, a French Renaissance interior, hand-carved wood paneling, trompe l’oeil accents, plaster friezes, a 5-story staircase, hardwood flooring, 12 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 2 rooftop patios, 11 wood-burning fireplaces, 3 elevators, a whopping 20,000 square feet of living space, and views of Central Park and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The pad even has a separate penthouse level complete with a private entrance and staircase.

Though the townhouse fronts Fifth Avenue . . .

. . . it is its 82nd Street side that is most impressive. The building reminds me quite a bit of the Cravens Estate in Pasadena, but on a much grander scale.

Shortly after its completion, the 100×27-foot property was purchased by American Tobacco Company founder Benjamin N. Duke.

The manse continued to be owned by members of the Duke family for more than one hundred years. It was not until 2006 that Benjamin’s granddaughter Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (hence the name Duke Semans Mansion) sold the townhouse to real estate mogul Tamir Sapir. The purchase price? A cool $40 million!

Sapir subsequently sold the pad in 2010 to the richest man in the world at the time, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim, for $44 million. Five years later, Slim put the residence on the market with an asking price of $80 million (!!!), but it does not appear that there were any takers.

The Benjamin N. Duke House is not only listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but is also a New York City Landmark.

Sadly, there are not many photographs of the mansion’s interior floating around online, but you can catch a glimpse of a few here, as well as watch some videos that show portions of the inside of the structure here and here.

In The First Wives Club, Shelly Stewart (Sarah Jessica Parker) heads to the Benjamin N. Duke House for a “super social luncheon” with Gunilla.

I am unsure if the actual interior of the mansion was utilized in the scene, but I do not believe so. None of the photographs of the inside of the townhouse that I have come across match what was shown onscreen, so I am guessing that interiors were filmed at another Manhattan estate or on a studio-built set.

The First Wives Club is not the only production to feature the Benjamin N. Duke House.

In The French Connection, the property portrays an apartment building where actor Dom Ameche and a criminal named Weinstock (Harold Gray) are both said to reside.

The mansion looked quite a bit different when the Best Picture-winning thriller was shot in 1971 than it does today, as you can see below.

The townhouse also portrayed the home of Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) and his family in the 1991 drama Regarding Henry.

Scenes taking place inside the Turner residence were shot elsewhere, though, on what I believe was a studio-built set.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Benjamin N. Duke House, aka Gunilla’s mansion from The First Wives Club, is located at 1009 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.

July 6, 2018September 26, 2018

The New York Yacht Club from “Hannah and Her Sisters”

While filming locations are, of course, my first love, I am all about discovering unique, off-the-beaten-path, non-Hollywood-related landmarks and hidden gems, as well (as evidenced here, here and here). So my interest was immediately piqued when, shortly before my 2016 trip to the Big Apple, my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, informed me of a building known as the New York Yacht Club that boasts highly unusual ship-like windows. Photos of the structure I found online only served to further my intrigue and I promptly added the site to my stalking itinerary. In person, it did not disappoint. I was completely taken with the whimsical property and snapped numerous photographs of it, never imagining it was a filming locale. So imagine my excitement when I spotted it pop up in Hannah and Her Sisters while scanning through the 1986 dramedy in preparation for my recent post on Bemelmans Bar. Though its appearance in the flick is extremely brief, I figured the building was still most-definitely deserving of a write-up.

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The New York Yacht Club was originally established in 1844 by 9 sailing enthusiasts. Though initially headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, the group moved to its current home, a Beaux Arts-style stunner located at 37 West 44th Street in Midtown, in 1901. Designed by the Warren and Wetmore architecture firm, who also gave us Grand Central Terminal, the stunning structure, which cost $350,000 to complete, features an elaborate maritime-inspired limestone façade with a grand main entrance, fourth floor rooftop terrace, and massive wooden pergola.

The building’s pièce de résistance, though, is a set of 3 towering bay windows that were built to resemble the sterns of 16th Century Dutch ships. The mammoth oriels, situated on the club’s second floor, are held up by carved cascading waves that appear seconds from spilling onto the pavement below.

The galleon-style windows are fanciful, cartoonish, and striking all at the same time and very reminiscent, to me at least, of those located at the rear of Captain Hook’s pirate ship.

Of the Yacht Club’s eccentric design, The New York Times stated in a 1906 article, “Except for the absence of motion, one might fancy oneself at sea.”

Though the NYYC’s exterior is exquisite, its interior is even more impressive, with a Grill Room modeled after the hull of a wooden ship, a sprawling library that houses more than 13,000 books, and an extravagant 100-foot long Model Room that is capped by a giant Tiffany-designed stained glass ceiling. Sadly, only members and invited guests are allowed past the front door to see the spectacle. The rest of us have to make due with admiring the stunning interior from afar via the various photos and videos that can be found online.

In addition to its architecture, the private, invitation-only club is famous for its extensive roster of prominent past and current members which include John Jacob Astor, William F. Buckley Jr., Ted Kennedy, Michael Bloomberg, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Walter Cronkite, Ted Turner, J.P. Morgan, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The NYYC is also known for having not only won the America’s Cup in 1851, but managing to hang on to the coveted trophy until 1983, when it was lost to the Australia-based Royal Perth Yacht Club.

And the club can add “filming location” to its already-impressive bio. In Hannah and Her Sisters, David (Sam Waterston) takes April (Carrie Fisher) and Holly (Dianne Wiest) on a tour of some of his favorite architectural landmarks, which includes a brief drive-by of the New York Yacht Club.

The club is also visible in the background of the scene in which “Wall Street King” Eli Colton (Tate Donovan) and his drug dealer Harry Ingram (Will Brill) discuss a payoff in the Season 18 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled “Net Worth,” which aired in 2017.

Though some online sources have claimed that the Yale Club scene from the 2000 drama American Psycho was lensed at the NYYC, that is not, in fact, correct. The segment was actually shot at the Consort Bar at The Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto, Canada.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about and taking me to this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The New York Yacht Club, from Hannah and Her Sisters, is located at 37 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan.