famous buildings – Page 2

May 4, 2018May 3, 2018

Big and Carrie’s Apartment from “Sex and the City 2”

Apparently I did a lot of stalking during my April 2016 New York vacation because there are some places I do not even remember visiting. Case in point – while organizing my photos from the trip a couple of days ago, I came across several images of the stately building above which I had no recollection whatsoever of taking – nor did I have any clue what production the structure was from. Thankfully “1030 5th Avenue” was painted on the awning, otherwise I might never have figured it out! Address in hand, I scanned through my NYC stalking list and was shocked to discover that the locale was actually where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) lived in the 2010 flick Sex and the City 2. How I did not recognize it right off the bat is beyond me! I guess I have to chalk it up to some major stalking overload.

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The handsome 13-story property was designed in 1925 by J.E.R. Carpenter, the prolific architect/developer who was not only responsible for more than 25 buildings on the Upper East Side, but was dubbed “the father of the modern large apartment here in New York” in 1932’s The Real Estate Record & Guide.

The stunning 16-unit pre-war building is chock-full of modern amenities.

Deemed a “white-glove” property by StreetEasy, the neo-Italianate-style co-op features a fitness center, an elevator with an operator, a full-time doorman, a canopied entrance, a spacious lobby, and a laundry room.

Situated on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 84th Street, the structure also boasts stunning views of Central Park and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Each apartment is appointed with spacious dimensions, a multitude of rooms, high ceilings, and wood-burning fireplaces.

Considering its tony location and gorgeous trappings, it is not surprising that quite a few celebrities and public figures have called the place home over the years, including Academy-Award-winning producer Wendy Finerman, actor Robert Redford, journalist Diane Sawyer, director Mike Nichols, and CoreComm CEO George S. Blumenthal.

1030 Fifth Avenue pops up twice in Sex and the City 2. It first appears in a beginning scene that shows Carrie leaving her apartment and heading out to meet the girls at Bergdorf Goodman . . .

. . . before transitioning to a flashback of Carrie’s arrival in New York in the ‘80s. As you can see in my photographs as compared to the screen captures above and below, the building’s canopy was swapped out for a striped one during the shoot.

1030 Fifth is featured again a few scenes later when Big and Carrie return home from Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony’s (Mario Cantone) wedding.

In the movie, the building is said to be the same place where the couple purchased a penthouse in the first film. As Carrie narrates, “After Big and I sold the extravagant rooftop penthouse we thought we were meant to live in, we decided that maybe we needed to come a little more down to earth. So we did. Twelve floors to be exact.” In reality, the structure featured in the first flick is located two blocks south at 1010 Fifth Avenue. I blogged about that locale last July. The two sites do bear a striking resemblance to each other, though, as you can see below.

As to why the shift in locales was made from the first to second film, I am uncertain, but producers sure did find an extremely similar replacement.

In Sex and the City 2, Carrie and Big are shown to live in unit 12B.

In reality, the interior of their apartment was just a set built inside of a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens where much of the movie was lensed. You can check out some photographs of what the actual twelfth floor unit, which takes up the entire level, looks like here. The stunning 6-bedroom, 6-bath space is currently for sale for a cool $38 million.

The last time I took a tour of Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, I was thrilled to see Carrie and Big’s “good” couch on display in the Property Department.

And their ottoman . . .

. . . where Carrie is sitting when Big gives her a black diamond wedding ring, which is my favorite scene in the movie. I absolutely love when Carrie says, “It’s gonna be just us two. Are we enough?” And Big responds, “Kid, we’re too much!”

1030 Fifth Avenue also pops up in the 2010 comedy The Good Guy as the building where Tommy Fielding (Scott Porter) lives. (Please pardon the graphics on the images below – I had to snag the captures from the movie’s trailer.)

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: Carrie and Big’s apartment from Sex and the City 2 is located at 1030 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.

February 28, 2018February 27, 2018

Pico House from “My Sister Sam”

The name of my blog is (obviously) meant in jest. I always feel a pang of guilt over having chosen it, though, when I think about Rebecca Schaeffer, the young actress who was gunned down in her doorway by a deranged stalker at the tender age of 21 in 1989. My grandma and I religiously watched My Sister Sam, the CBS series she starred on, when it was on the air in the late-80s and were both considerably obsessed. We were equally devastated when it was cancelled after a scant one and a half seasons and then again when we learned of Schaeffer’s murder a little over a year later. While the show and its star have never strayed far from my mind in the years since, somehow I never though about tracking down the supposed San Francisco building where Schaeffer’s teenaged character, Patti Russell, lived with her older sister, Sam Russell (Pam Dawber). Thankfully, in 2013, a reader named Vera Charles left a comment on my 2009 post about downtown L.A.’s Pico House, which I was reporting on due to its use as “Sacramento’s” CBI headquarters on The Mentalist, alerting me to the fact that the very same spot served as the My Sister Sam apartment! I was floored over the news, but, for whatever reason, am only just now getting around to re-blogging about the historic site.

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Constructed from 1869 to 1870, Pico House has the distinction of being Los Angeles’ first three-story building.

Commissioned by Pio Pico, the last governor of California under Mexican rule, the Italianate structure originally served as an 82-room hotel. Not just any hotel, though – it was the city’s finest, featuring arched windows and doors at every turn, a grand double staircase, an aviary, 21 parlors, 2 courtyards, a French restaurant, restrooms and water closets for both sexes on each floor, a bar, and a billiards room. Designed by architect Ezra F. Kysor, the lodging cost $48,000 to construct and a whopping $34,000 to decorate and furnish. At the time of its opening, the most expensive rooms ran for $3 a night.

Though the property proved bustling throughout its first decade, Pio wasn’t the savviest when it came to finances and he wound up losing Pico House to foreclosure in 1880. The site subsequently passed through several hands, continuing to function as a hotel, before being transformed into an inexpensive boarding house named The National in 1892. It operated as such for the next three decades, growing more dilapidated as time passed. Though the original moniker was restored in 1920, the building continued to deteriorate, becoming a mere shadow of its once grand self, and was eventually condemned in 1922.

It was finally acquired by the city of L.A. in 1953 and incorporated into El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. Though it has remained vacant ever since (you can check out some images of the interior taken in 2006 here), the site has undergone several renovations in the ensuing years and is both a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Today, it is utilized mainly as a special events venue and, of course, for filming.

Pico House has the fortunate and unique quality of boasting four rather diverse façades. As such it has proved an extremely versatile landscape for filming. The north and west edifices are both elaborately Italianate in style, with arched windows and doors and stuccoed exteriors fashioned to resemble blue granite. Though similar, the north end (pictured below) stands alone facing El Pueblo de Los Angeles’ Old Plaza and bears the look of a 19th Century courthouse or city hall . . .

. . . while the west end (pictured below), which runs along North Main Street, is much wider and is adjacent to several buildings with Victorian detailing, giving it a very San Francisco feel.

The south façade, which is situated on Arcadia Street, boasts an Old West style and has a very Sacramento-ish look.

And the east side, which runs along Sanchez Street, features fabulous red brickwork as far as the eye can see.

It is the western end that masked as Sam and Patti’s apartment building on My Sister Sam, which, as I mentioned above, was said to be located in San Francisco.

Only the exterior of the building was utilized on the series. The interior of Sam and Patti’s apartment was just a set constructed at Warner Bros. Ranch (then named The Burbank Studios Ranch), where the show was lensed.

In the Season 1 episode of Amazing Stories titled “Alamo Jobe,” which aired in 1985, the north side of Pico House masks as the site of the modern-day Alamo.

Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) work patrol in front of Pico House’s north end at the beginning of 1992’s Lethal Weapon 3.

That same year, Pico House’s southern side masqueraded as Hotel Brian in 19th Century San Francisco where Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) tried to secure lodging in the Season 5 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled “Time’s Arrow: Part 1.”

The building situated adjacent to Pico House at 425 North Los Angeles Street also appeared as 19th Century San Francisco in the episode.

In real life, that structure (pictured below) houses the Chinese American Museum.

In the Season 1 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Machismo,” which aired in 2006, the south side of Pico House . . .

. . . . as well as the interior courtyard portrayed a police station in Allende Del Sol, Mexico.

Beginning in 2008, the south end of the site was utilized regularly as Sacramento’s CBI Headquarters on the television series The Mentalist. Besides appearing in weekly establishing shots . . .

. . . some location filming also took place on the premises, as was the case with Season 1’s “Bloodshot.”

The building’s east side was even used to portray a nightclub in that particular episode.

JLS shot their 2009 music video for “Everybody in Love” in Pico House’s courtyard. You can watch the video here.

That same year, the courtyard situated just outside of Pico House’s north entrance appeared in the “ . . . if he’s not marrying you” vignette in He’s Just Not That Into You. The bit contains one of my favorite lines from the movie – “The second you hear that, you just run to the store and get yourself some ribs and some ice cream, because you have been dumped!” You can watch the hilarious segment here.

The Ghost Adventures crew investigates paranormal happenings related to an 1871 race riot in which 19 people were killed at Pico House in the Season 4 episode titled “Pico House Hotel,” which aired in 2011.

In the 2016 drama Live by Night, Pico House’s courtyard appears as the hospital where Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) recovers from a beating.

The Chinese American Museum also pops up in the movie as the spot where Joe and his crew rob card players during a high stakes poker game.

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: Pico House, aka Sam and Patti’s apartment from My Sister Sam, is located at 424 North Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. The site is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. Several areas of the monument have appeared onscreen, including the Old Plaza, located just north of Pico House at 1 Olvera Street, and the historic Olvera Street outdoor marketplace, the entrance to which is just beyond the Plaza. Union Station, another popular filming locale, can be found directly across the street at 800 North Alameda Street.

October 11, 2016September 29, 2017

Hollywood Tower

“The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you’re filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident… of The Twilight Zone.” So says Rod Serling at the end of Disney World’s popular The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction. The design of the ride, located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, was inspired by several California locales, one of which was Hollywood Tower, a luxury apartment building situated alongside the 101 Freeway in Tinseltown. The looming structure is such an icon and area landmark that it has become synonymous with the landscape of L.A. It is also consistently cited as one of the city’s most haunted locations (along with The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments, and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles), so I figured what better time to blog about it than now?

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Hollywood Tower was originally built in 1929 as “La Belle Tour,” a luxury apartment house. The French Normandy-style building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by architects Cramer and Wise.

The 8-story property, which rises to 110 feet at its highest point, boasts rooftop gardens, a subterranean garage, and 52 units, including 3 penthouses.

As the plaque on the front door tells you, the location served as “Sophisticated living for film luminaries during the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood.”

Renamed Hollywood Tower in 1942, such stars as Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Robert Patrick, George Raft, Eugene Pallette, William Powell, and Colin Clive (aka Dr. Henry Frankenstein – love it!) all called the place home at one time or another. Carmen Miranda was even married on the premises.

You can check out what the interior of the building looks like here, as well as some images of the individual units here, here, and here. The bathrooms are to die for!

Rumors of hauntings at Hollywood Tower are prevalent online. The Rock Photographer blog, penned by a building resident, mentions the hauntings (including a “shadowy, floating figure” who stalks the fourth floor), as well as suicides, murders and mob hits that have taken place on the property in this post, though no specifics are given.

Whether or not the building is actually haunted remains to be seen, but being that the structure has a decidedly looming presence, it is no surprise that it influenced the Disney Imagineers who created The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. (Check out Scouting LA for a fabulous write-up on the various SoCal properties that served as inspiration for the ride.)

As you can see below as compared to this image, the ride’s signage is very similar to that of Hollywood Tower. The overall design of the two structures is also somewhat similar, though Tower of Terror bears a distinct Southwestern element that cannot be found at Hollywood Tower.

Hollywood Tower is also a filming location! In the 1948 crime drama Devil’s Cargo, Margo Delgado (Rochelle Hudson) calls the building home.

Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) briefly stays with his friend at Hollywood Tower in the 1984 thriller Body Double.

The real life interior of one of the apartment units was also used in the movie, though very little of it can be seen.

Hollywood Tower is also where Leon (Alan Solomon) lived and gathered five students together to invite them to compete in the “Great All-nighter,” an all-night scavenger hunt through Los Angeles, in the 1980 comedy Midnight Madness.

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: Hollywood Tower is located at 6200 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.

July 22, 2016July 21, 2016

The Inspiration for the “Annie” Orphanage

My movie obsession began at a young age. I can pretty much pinpoint it to 1982 when Annie premiered. I was hooked on the musical from the start. I watched it over and over and over, eventually wearing out the VHS copy that my parents bought me. Its locations have also served as a longtime fascination. Ever since taking my second Warner Bros. tour in 2008, I have known that the Hudson St. Home for Girls, aka the orphanage in the film, could be found in the studio’s backlot, on Hennesy Street to be precise. The façade and the area surrounding it were created by Annie production designer Dale Hennesy specifically for the film. What I didn’t know up until a couple of years ago, though, was the fact that Dale based his design of the Hudson St. Home for Girls on two real New York buildings. I learned this bit of information from the Annie Official Movie Souvenir Program which I picked up at the Hollywood Show while meeting Annie herself, Aileen Quinn, in 2012. As you can guess, I immediately started chomping at the bit to track the buildings down.

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Of the orphanage’s inspiration, the Souvenir Program states, “Roughly a year before filming on the street [Hennesy Street at Warner Bros.] actually began, Academy Award-winning production designer Hennesy traveled to New York and combed the Lower East Side for the key structure in the Annie script – the orphanage. He found two he liked. One was on Mott Street, just south of Houston, and was now a four-unit apartment building. The other, near Sixth Street and Avenue B, was actually a former Children’s Aid Society home, built in the late 1880s. Making a movie in that area would have been difficult and expensive, so it was decided to build on the lot rather than film on location. The orphanage would combine elements of both buildings, and would be flanked with copies of typical New York structures in their area.” The studio rendering that Dale created is pictured below.

For all of the trouble he went to creating the Hudson St. Home for Girls, very little of the final product was actually shown onscreen.

As you can see above and below, only very tight shots of the orphanage, mainly focused on the doorway area, were featured in Annie.

Thankfully though, I was extremely familiar with the Hudson St. Home for Girls façade from my many visits to the WB, so I knew exactly what to look for when I started tracking down the New York buildings that served as its inspiration.

The building said to be located near Sixth Street and Avenue B, I pinpointed in a snap. I simply headed over to Google to do some Street Viewing of the area and found exactly what I was looking for at 630 East Sixth Street. The picturesque structure at that site features a distinct peaked roof, four levels of angled bay windows (each flanked by a pair of arched windows), and an entrance with a heavy portico situated to the side, all of which match the Annie orphanage to a T. To top it off, further research informed me that the property did, indeed, used to be a Children’s Aid Society school, as was mentioned in the Souvenir Program. Voilà!

The Sixth Street School, as the locale was originally known, was constructed in 1888. Funding for the site, which was designed by Calvert Vaux (the architect and landscape artist who co-designed Central Park) and George Kent Radford, was provided by Emily Vanderbilt Sloane, daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt. In 1932, the school was transformed into a men’s homeless shelter. It has since gone through several different incarnations including a women and children’s shelter, a church, and a social services facility. Today, it serves as a home for those suffering from AIDS and is known as Pencer House.

In 1999, the building’s handsome exterior underwent a restoration process led by Harden + Van Arnam Architects, the result of which is stunning.

You can read a more in-depth history of the site here.

The second building that served as inspiration for the Hudson St. Home for Girls, which the Souvenir Program described as being “on Mott Street, just south of Houston,” was also a snap to find. I simply headed to Google Street View once again to take a look at the block of Mott Street located immediately south of East Houston Street and spotted the right place within minutes at 256 Mott. As it turns out, the site was also once a Children’s Aid Society school known as the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School.

The Children’s Aid Society actually built twelve such schools in the 1880s and 1890s, all employing the same Victorian Gothic style. Only six remain intact today. Lucky for me, the Annie buildings are two of those extant structures. The purpose of the Children’s Aid Society schools was to teach trades to homeless and poverty-stricken children in the hopes that they would be able to provide for themselves in adulthood.

The Fourteenth Ward Industrial School was also built in 1888 and was also designed by Vaux and Radford. The funding was donated by John Jacob Astor III in honor of his wife, Charlotte, who had passed away the previous year. Today, the structure, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, serves as a residential building.

As you can see, the five-unit, four-story property boasts a peaked roof, angled bay windows flanked by arched windows, and a porticoed door situated off to one side, just like the Hudson St. Home for Girls façade and the Sixth Street School.

Unfortunately, it was undergoing a restoration of some kind while we were there and portions of its façade were covered over with plywood.

You can read a more in-depth history of the building here and here.

I was absolutely thrilled to see, while making screen captures for this post, that Dale Hennesy chose to use 256, the real life address number of the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, as the address number of the Hudson St. Home for Girls.

Interestingly, not only did the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School serve as inspiration for the Annie orphanage, but it is also a filming location! The building is where Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) and Suze (Krysten Ritter) lived in 2009’s Confessions of a Shopaholic.

And it served as Audry’s (Adrienne Shelly) apartment in 1989’s The Unbelievable Truth. (I apologize for the horrible screen captures below which I got off of YouTube.)

On a side-note – I find it surprising that the peaked roofline of the Annie orphanage, which Hennesy took such care to re-create from both of the inspiration buildings and which is so significant to their architecture, never appeared onscreen. The screen capture below shows the closest we get to seeing it in the movie.

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 Fourteenth Ward Industrial School is located at 256 Mott Street in New York’s Nolita neighborhood. The Sixth Street School is located at 630 East 6th Street in the East Village. The façade of the Hudson St. Home for Girls from Annie can be found on Hennesy Street at Warner Bros. Studio, which is located at 3400 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. Tour information can be found here.

May 14, 2015May 21, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – The “Perfect Strangers” Building

Be sure to check out my latest post for L.A.mag.com today, about the apartment building from Perfect Strangers. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

January 22, 2015January 19, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Los Altos Apartments

Be sure to check out my new Los Angeles magazine post here – about the Los Altos Apartments from Transparent. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

November 20, 2014November 17, 2014

Today’s “L.A.” Mag Post – About Ben’s Apartment from “National Treasure”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about Ben’s apartment from National Treasure. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

October 3, 2014September 29, 2017

The American Cement Building from “Scream 3”

While I am admittedly not a fan of MacArthur Park, there is a property situated on the border of it that I would absolutely LOVE to live in – The American Cement Building. Mike from, MovieShotsLA, pointed out the dramatically stunning structure many moons ago during one of our very first stalks together and I have been obsessed with it ever since. And while Mike also informed me that the edifice had appeared in the 2000 horror flick Scream 3, for some reason I never thought to blog about the place during my Haunted Hollywood postings. That changes today!

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The American Cement Building was constructed in 1964 and originally served as the American Cement Company’s headquarters. The Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM) architecture firm designed the 13-story structure, which was, fittingly, manufactured out of reinforced concrete.

The north and south sides of the building are covered in latticework comprised of 450 X-shaped pieces of precast concrete. While the design adds beauty to the structure’s façade and is striking to look at, it serves a functional objective, as well. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy website, “The primary purpose of the latticework is to provide external support for the structural system so the building’s interior can be free of columns.”

The American Cement Building underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in 2002 during which time the office spaces were transformed into 71 live/work lofts. You can check out some great interior photographs of the property here. The units – and their views – are breathtaking!

In Scream 3, The American Cement Building housed the office of horror movie producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).

At the time of the filming, the interior of the building was far less modern than it is today.

I absolutely LOVE the fact that Milton had a diving board attached to his window in the flick. Anyone care for a swim? Winking smile

The American Cement Building also appeared in Pharrell Williams’ music video “Come Get It Bae,” which featured Miley Cyrus.

The building’s parking garage was where The Bride (Uma Thurman) learned how to wiggle her toe again in Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

The Entourage movie also apparently did some filming at the building in March of this year.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The American Cement Building, from Scream 3, is located at 2404 Wilshire Boulevard in Westlake. You can visit the building’s official website here.

April 17, 2012April 16, 2012

The “New Girl” Apartment Building

My good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna has been begging me to track down locations from New Girl for a good three months now, but because I had never seen an episode of the series I was unable to do so. Until last Monday evening, that is, when the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down and started watching it from the beginning. Thank you, Hulu! I have to admit that I did not have very high hopes for the show as, for whatever reason, I am not that big of a fan of actress Zooey Deschanel (whose mom played Eileen Hayward on fave series Twin Peaks, but I digress). I ended up LOVING it, though, and both the GC and I are now absolutely hooked! After watching the first few episodes, I immediately started doing research on the warehouse-style loft apartment building where the New Girl gang lives (Lavonna’s most coveted locale from the series) and thankfully, Christine, over at fave website OnLocationVacations, had posted the address several times on her Daily Filming Locations page. So I dragged the GC right on out to the Arts District in Downtown L.A. this past Saturday afternoon to do some stalking of the place. (On a side-note, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, just taught me how to process my photographs using the soon-to-be defunct Picnik editing program, so I have been having a little fun with them today. Don’t mind me. Smile )

I had never before visited – or even heard of – the “Arts District” (or “Artists District” as it is sometimes referred to) until this past Saturday, but according to the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District website, the area is the site of an average of 900 movie shoots per year! Um, yes please – sign me up! It is basically a stalker’s heaven – and one of the coolest spots that I have been to in all of my stalking travels. The District became a haven for the artistically-inclined in 1976 thanks to the many affordable studio-type spaces available in the countless then-abandoned buildings and warehouses located there. Artists gradually began to take over the many spacious lofts, turning them into art studios and illegal living spaces (the area was not yet zoned as residential). In the 1980s, the Artists-In-Residence ordinance was passed which allowed lessees to use their flats as live/work spaces and, as a result, even more artisans flocked to the area. Today, the Arts District is a flourishing mecca of artists and hipsters and boasts fabulous brick buildings, sidewalk cafes and more galleries than you can shake a stick at. While there, not only did I feel like I had been transported back to my beloved Manhattan, but we ended up falling bass-ackwards into one of my most sought-after filming locations ever! But that is another story for another post.

In real life, the property where the New Girl gang lives is known as the Binford Building and it was originally constructed in 1906, but was not converted into a residential structure until the mid-1980s. The 36-unit domicile was the brainchild of real estate developer Michael Kamin, owner of the Mika Company, who, in a 1986 Los Angeles Times article said, “We wanted to make the building a statement and an art piece — something that says this is an exciting place to live, something to keep the focus on this street.” I would say he succeeded – in spades! The structure is definitely unique and the most eye-catching on the entire block.

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In New Girl, the Binford Building is where Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) live. The exterior of the structure is shown weekly on the series.

The building’s main entrance has also popped up from time to time.

That entrance is shown above.

As you can see, the Binford’s real life directory and intercom are even visible on the show. Love it!

The interior of the gang’s apartment is just a set, though, located at Fox Studios where (I am fairly certain) the series is lensed. You can check out some photographs of the interior of an actual Binford Building unit here. As you can see, it does not look anything like the New Girl loft. I am absolutely IN LOVE with the group’s sprawling, FOUR-bedroom, industrial, brick-walled loft, by the way. The GC and I also live in a loft-style apartment that I ADORE, but it is 750-square feet, has no actual bedrooms and only ONE teeny-tiny closet! Yes, ladies, I have to share a closet with my husband – GASP! The GC recently commented that he has noticed his side of the closet getting gradually smaller over the years. Ha! And here I thought I was being all sly. Winking smile So yes, I have been known to drool copiously while watching New Girl. I definitely have apartment envy!

I could do without their public-style bathroom, though, which is an aspect of the show that I still do not entirely understand.

According to a message board on the Animation Nation website, the premiere episode of the cartoon Family Dog (which was part of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories) was created by animator Brad Bird in one of the Binford Building lofts. The family in the series was even named “The Binfords” in honor of the property. Traction Avenue, the street where the Binford is located, was also mentioned (and briefly seen on a freeway sign) in Bird’s 2004 hit, The Incredibles.

Binford Lofts–the “New Girl” Apartment Building

You can watch a video about the Binford Building lofts by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for asking me to find this location (and for turning me on to New Girl) and to Christine, from OnLocationVacations, for tracking it down! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Binford Building, aka the New Girl apartment building, is located at 837 Traction Avenue in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles.

April 2, 2012April 1, 2012

The Former Site of the Roxbury

In honor of my girl Shannen Doherty’s new reality series, Shannen Says, which premieres next Tuesday (can’t wait!), I thought I would blog today about one of the actress’ famed hangouts from her Beverly Hills, 90210 days – the Roxbury in West Hollywood. Back when I was a teenager and knee-deep in my 90210 obsession (ah, who am I kidding, I am still knee-deep in it!), I clamored for any and all magazines featuring the show’s stars. I would practically drool while reading of their various comings and goings, especially Shannen’s, and as her name became more and more synonymous with the Roxbury, the legendary Sunset Strip club became seared into my memory. I, sadly, never had the opportunity to stalk the place, though, as it closed its doors in 1997, long before I moved to Los Angeles. But back in 2002, after an acting class, one of my friends invited me to grab some drinks at a hot spot named Miyagi’s. Not being a nightclub kinda girl myself, I turned down the offer, to which my friend said, “Are you sure? Miyagi’s used to be the Roxbury, where your girl Shannen Doherty hung out.” Well, believe you me, once I heard those words, I was in! In true Hollywood fashion, not even Miyagi’s stood the test of time, though, and, as you can see above, today the location houses a newly-opened Pink Taco. But I figured since the site was hallowed ground for any 90210 fan, it was definitely blog-worthy.

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The building that stands at the corner of Roxbury Road and West Sunset Boulevard has long been the darling of the Sunset Strip. The spot’s first incarnation was a celebrity supper club named The Players, or The Players Club, that was founded in 1940 by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Preston Sturges. During its Players days, such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee, William Faulkner, George S. Kaufman, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Howard Hughes all hung out there. Despite its popularity, the club started to falter by the early 1950s, though, most likely due to the fact that Preston often closed the three-story, 12,000-square-foot venue, which included a barber shop, a hydraulic stage, a burger stand, and three different restaurants, in order to host private parties for his famous friends. In 1953, his creditors sold the place to new owners who opened a Japanese restaurant named Imperial Gardens on the site. That eatery also proved to be quite popular with the Hollywood set and catered to such stars as John Savage, James Woods, John Travolta, and Olivia Newton-John.

In 1989, after an amazing 36-year run, Imperial Gardens closed and partners Brad Johnson and Elie Samaha purchased the establishment and transformed it into the Roxbury. Virtually overnight, the club became the place to see and be seen in Hollywood. The stars of 90210 flocked there like moths to a flame and were spotted partying on the premises virtually every night. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have been 21 and living in Hollywood at that time. Winking smile Besides Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, Shannen Doherty and Mark Wahlberg (pictured at the club in a November 1992 People Magazine article), other celebrities that spent time at the Roxbury during its almost decade-long reign on the Sunset Strip include Cher, John Travolta, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Prince, Sylvester Stallone, River Phoenix, Christina Applegate, Eddie Murphy, and, of all people, Geraldo Rivera. The club was so popular that it even inspired the movie A Night at the Roxbury, although no actual filming took place on site. And Eric Huerta, the Roxbury’s longtime bouncer, became so well-known himself that a Los Angeles Times article was written about him in November of 1993. As usually happens with hotspots in Los Angeles, though, the Roxbury’s star began to fade and eventually closed in 1997. Shortly thereafter, Miyagi’s, a Japanese-inspired club/restaurant, opened in its place. I do not remember much of what Miyagi’s was like from my one visit there back in 2002, aside from the fact that the place was huge, the food was good, and, as I danced, all I could think about was that Shannen Doherty herself had one danced in the very same spot. I was practically pinching myself all night.

Miyagi’s closed its doors sometime in 2008 and was purchased by Harry Morton, owner of the Pink Taco restaurant chain and son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton. The young restaurateur immediately set about gutting the interior of the place and wound up discovering some traces of the historic Players Club in the process – including the entrance to a former underground (now sealed) tunnel that once connected the hotspot to the Chateau Marmont and was used by celebrities who wanted to escape prying eyes. And while Pink Taco did not officially open until yesterday, a private birthday bash was held there on March 23rd in honor of Jared Eng, the blogger behind the JustJared website. Some of the stars who attended that soiree include Fergie, Rumer Willis, Kellan Lutz, Lance Bass, Natasha Bedingfield, Seth MacFarlane, Avril Lavigne, and a few of this generation’s 90210-ers including Shenae Grimes, Jessica Stroup, and my love Matt Lanter (sigh!).

Thankfully, the exterior of the Sunset Boulevard hotspot hasn’t changed much over the years and despite the fact that it is now painted a bright pink (and yes, that is a whole lotta pink!), it still looks much the same as it did in the 1940s. You can see what The Players used to look like here, Imperial Gardens here, the Roxbury here, and Miyagi’s here. And you can check out some interior pictures of the new Pink Taco on fave website EaterLA here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pink Taco, aka the former site of the Roxbury, is located at 8225 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant chain’s official website here.