famous parks – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 19, 2010November 20, 2010

Gas Works Park from “10 Things I Hate About You”

Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May – and yes, there are still quite a few of them that I have yet to blog about – was Seattle’s famously unique Gas Works Park, the spot where Patrick Verona (aka Heath Ledger) took Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles) to play a game of paintball in the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You. I found this location, as well as countless other 10 Things I Hate About You locations, from fellow stalker Owen, who has managed to compile a mind-bogglingly massive list of Seattle-area filming locales over the past few years. And I can honestly say that Gas Works Park is easily the most interesting and unique of all of the locations that I stalked while vacationing in Washington State. Actually, come to think of it, the park is quite possibly the most unique and interesting of all the locations I have ever visited in my entire stalking career! The place is truly incredible.

Gas Works Park, as the name implies, was originally a gasification plant established by the Seattle Gas Company in 1906 to manufacture gas from coal. The plant was one of Seattle’s main sources of power until 1956 when the city began using natural, instead of “town” – or synthetically produced – gas, at which point the plant was shuttered. In 1962, the City of Seattle purchased the property for a cool $1,340,000 with the intention of turning the space into a public park. Enter award-winning landscape architect Richard Haag who was brought in to transform the area into a place of recreation and beauty, which he indeed did, later winning the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award Design of Excellence for the project. In an unprecedented move, because the property was the only gasification plant still in existence in the U.S., Haag decided to preserve the seemingly-ugly and utilitarian equipment and incorporate them into his park design. And while a park that features old gas generator towers and rusted boiler rooms might not sound appealing, what Haag left us with is a truly stunning mix of industry and nature.

So stunning, in fact, that it has become a popular Seattle wedding venue, as unlikely as that might seem. As you can see in the above photograph, one was even being set up while we were stalking the place.

Part of what makes the 20.5-acre park, which is both a Seattle City Landmark and a Washington State Landmark, so spectacular is its amazing views of Lake Union, Downtown Seattle, and the Space Needle.

And, as fellow stalker Kerry pointed out, the park also boasts a perfect water-side view of the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat. So incredibly cool!

Thanks to the park’s unique architecture, it should come as no surprise that filmmakers have returned there time and time again to shoot various productions. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick takes Kat to Gas Works Park to play paintball after she sneaks him out of detention and it is there that the couple shares their first kiss. In real life, the park does not actually feature a paintball area, though.

You can watch the 10 Things I Hate About You paintball scene by clicking above.

In the 1992 movie Singles, Gas Works Park is the location where Linda Powell (aka The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick) says yes to Steve Dunne’s (aka Campbell Scott’s) marriage proposal.

In the 1989 movie Three Fugitives, the park is the spot where Ned Perry’s (aka Martin Short’s) daughter, Meg (aka Sarah Rowland Doroff), speaks for the first time.

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Gas Works Park was also featured twice on the reality television series The Amazing Race. It first appeared as the finish line for the final competition in Season 3 and was later used as the starting point in the very first competition in Season 10 (pictured above).

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for telling me about this location and to fellow stalker Kerry and her husband Jim for taking me there. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Gas Works Park, from 10 Things I Hate About You, is located at 2101 North Northlake Way in Seattle, Washington. The area where the paintball scene was filmed is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can visit the official Gas Works Park website here.

July 6, 2010July 5, 2010

Will Rogers Memorial Park from “90210”

As I mentioned yesterday, my fiancé and I spent quite a bit of last weekend making up for lost time, so to speak, by catching up on all of the stalking that I had been putting off over the past few months while my dad was ill. The location that I was most excited about seeing in person was Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, which was the spot where Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter) took a dip in a fountain in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Multiple Choices”. And while I haven’t exactly been a huge fan of the CW series this past season, I have absolutely loved watching the friendship between Liam and Annie blossom and change in the most recent episodes, especially in the fountain scene (which is vaguely reminiscent of the Carrie/Big fountain scene from Sex and the City). Add to that the fact that I have a massive crush on actor Matt Lanter and I just HAD to stalk the park where filming took place. 🙂 It is at this point that I should confess that I had no idea whatsoever where Annie and Liam’s fountain might be located, despite the fact that I’d actually driven by it more times than I’d care to admit. Thankfully though, the Grim Cheaper pays closer attention to things than I do, because he recognized the park immediately while watching the show. Thank you, G.C.! As it turns out, Will Rogers Memorial Park is located on Sunset Boulevard, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of my favorite places in all of L.A. How I had never seen the park during one of my many visits to the Pink Palace is absolutely beyond me! Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes!

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The five-acre parcel of land that currently makes up Will Rogers Memorial Park originally belonged to the Beverly Hills Hotel and served as its front lawn area. In 1915, the hotel decided to donate the land to the City of Beverly Hills and it became known as Sunset Park, the city’s very first municipal park. Thirty-seven years later, in 1952, the City renamed the property in honor of legendary actor/humorist/cowboy Will Rogers, who had been dubbed “Honorary Mayor” of Beverly Hills while at the park in 1926.

Will Rogers Memorial Park is an absolutely GORGEOUS place, with a huge central fountain filled with Koi fish, sweeping lawns, and countless palm trees which dot the property. I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.

In the “Multiple Choices” episode of 90210, Liam takes Annie to the park to get her mind off of her parents’ recent marital troubles. While there, Annie announces that she wants “to kick something or scream or just, you know, run away” before impulsively jumping into the park’s large fountain. When Liam later tries to pull her out, he accidentally falls into the water himself. It’s a super cute little scene and was the first time that either Annie or Liam acknowledged to themselves that they might have feelings for each other.

You can watch the Annie/Liam fountain scene by clicking above.

Will Rogers Memorial Park has actually had quite a few brushes with fame. Its cinematic history first began almost nine decades ago, when it was featured in the 1921 Charlie Chaplin movie The Idle Class, which you can see a photograph of here. And according to the Seeing Stars website, in 1990 rocker Rod Stewart proposed to his one-time wife Rachel Hunter while at the park. The property is perhaps most famous, though, for a much less glitzy reason – it was in the park’s restroom that singer George Michael was arrested for performing a lewd act on April 7, 1998. And while my fiancé did use the men’s room while we were there, I felt a little odd about sending him in with a camera to take pictures of it. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Rogers Memorial Park is located at 9650 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

April 16, 2010April 15, 2010

The “Pretty Woman”/”(500) Days of Summer” Fountain and Park

Another Downtown Los Angeles location that my fiancé and I stalked this past weekend was the water fountain and park which appeared in both fave movie Pretty Woman and not so fave movie (500) Days of Summer. I discovered this location way back in September of 2007 when I was called to serve as a juror on a four day trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown L.A. I’m glad to know jury duty is at least good for something. 😉

As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, included in Los Angeles’ jury orientation presentation are directions to the nearest Starbucks – made complete with a PowerPoint slide showing a map which details the cafe’s exact location. I am not kidding here! Needless to say, I spent quite a bit of time at that Starbucks, especially because jurors are often given two hour-plus lunches (also not kidding!). The “Courthouse Starbucks” as I came to call it is located in the middle of the Civic Center Mall, which is a large plaza that can be found about two blocks away from the Criminal Justice Center. While waiting in line to order my latte one morning, I noticed a HUGE fountain located just north of where I was standing and immediately recognized it as the fountain which appeared in Pretty Woman. I had always wondered where that fountain was located, so I was beyond floored to have discovered it while waiting in line to purchase a cup of coffee. It always amazes me the things I notice if I just have my eyes open, instead of buried in my Blackberry. 😉 Anyway, because jurors aren’t allowed to bring cameras into the Criminal Justice Center, I wasn’t able to take any photographs of the fountain while on jury duty, so this past weekend I dragged my fiancé back there so that I could finally blog about the place.

In Pretty Woman, the fountain shows up towards the end of the movie in the scene in which Vivian Ward (aka Julia Roberts) has just convinced Edward Lewis (aka Richard Gere) to take his very first day off of work. Vivian is shown walking along the rim of the fountain where she announces that she wants a “snap dog” – whatever that is.

The official name of the Pretty Woman fountain is the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain and it was dedicated on May 18, 1966. Will, who served as the chief administrative officer of the County of Los Angeles from 1951 to 1957, was instrumental in developing the Civic Center Mall as an urban park and garden for those Angelinos who worked in the area so that they could enjoy a bit of outdoor time during their busy day. The Civic Center Mall is officially known as El Paseo De Los Pobladores De Los Angeles, which translates to “The Walk of the First Settlers of Los Angeles”, and was named in honor of the 44 Mexican settlers who on September 4th of 1781 founded the City of Angels.

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I have to give some serious props to the Grim Cheaper right now, as he is turning out to be quite the little stalker! While we were taking pictures of the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain he immediately recognized the park located just south of it as the spot where Edward and Vivian “copped a squat” in Pretty Woman. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t recognize the park at all, and was so convinced that it wasn’t the same one which appeared in Pretty Woman that I told him not to bother taking any photographs of it! It’s a good thing he didn’t listen to me,though, because as it turns out, the patch of grass which is located in the southern portion of the Civic Center Mall is, in fact, the Pretty Woman park. Thank you, G.C.!

The park was featured in the scene immediately following the fountain scene, in which Edward and Vivian are shown relaxing on a blanket and reading Shakespeare out loud to each other.

As I mentioned above, the Civic Center Mall was also featured in the 2009 flick (500) Days of Summer and I immediately recognized the place when I saw the movie a few months back. The Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain appeared very briefly in the beginning of the big Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” dance sequence.

The vast majority of the dance sequence takes place on the walkway just east of the fountain, in between the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration building and the Courthouse Starbucks.

I also immediately recognized the dance area when I first watched (500) Days of Summer, as it is located along the exact route I would take multiple times each day while on my frequent Starbucks runs during jury duty – and yes, I go to Starbucks multiple times a day and I’m not ashamed to admit it! 🙂

Needless to say, the (500) Days of Summer dance sequence was my absolute favorite scene in the entire movie! I’m a sucker for any sort of musical type performance and being that “You Make My Dreams Come True” is one of my VERY favorite ‘80s songs, I felt like the whole thing was pretty much tailor-made for me. But because the scene was so incredibly fun and upbeat and joyful, it made the movie’s ending all that more shocking of a blow. 🙁 You can watch the big (500) Days of Summer dance number by clicking above – but I’m warning you, unless you want to be depressed for a good couple of hours, do NOT watch the rest of the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Civic Center Mall, aka El Paseo De Los Pobladores De Los Angeles, is located in between the Los Angeles County Municipal Court (111 N. Hill Street) and the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration (500 West Temple Street), and is bordered by Hill Street to the north and Grand Avenue to the south. The Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain, aka the Pretty Woman fountain, is located in the northern portion of the Mall, near North Grand Avenue, in between West Temple Street and West 1st Street. The Pretty Woman park is located just a bit south of the fountain, on North Hill Street. The (500) Days of Summer dance sequence took place on the walkway in front of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. The cameras were facing southwest for most of that scene, looking towards the Hall of Records building.

May 19, 2009May 20, 2009

Farnsworth Park

My favorite movie of all time has got to be Dirty Dancing. I’ve loved the coming-of-age film ever since I was about 13 years old. Oh, how I wanted to be Baby! 🙂 Growing up, I made my best guy friend practice doing “the lift” with me everytime we were in a swimming pool. LOL And, like Baby, I could never seem to get it right! 🙂 It has long been my location dream to one day travel to Pembroke, Virgina to stalk Mountain Lake Resort, the hotel where most of the filming of the movie took place. So, imagine my surprise yesterday when I read in my new favorite stalking book that the final dance sequence from Dirty Dancing was actually filmed right here in L.A.! I literally just about died of excitement!!!! LOL According to the book, the Kellerman Playhouse, which supposedly existed at the Catskills resort where Baby and her family were vacationing, was, in reality, the Davies Memorial Building located in Farnsworth Park in Altadena. So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it!

Unfortunately, though, after watching Dirty Dancing earlier today – accompanied by screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein’s commentary – I am fairly certain that the rumors about the movie being filmed in Altadena are simply that – rumors. As you can see in the above screen captures, the Davies Memorial Building in no way resembles the Kellerman Playhouse where Johnny and Baby performed their famous final dance. 🙁 The differences between the two buildings include: the Kellerman Playhouse has French doors and stone columns running along its walls, but the Davies Building does not; the ceiling of the Davies Building is flanked by wooden beams, while the ceiling of the Kellerman Playhouse has an almost curtain-like ceiling; the Davies Building features a huge rock fireplace centered on one wall, while the Kellerman Playhouse is lacking a fireplace; and the chandeliers in the Davies building are craftsman style, while the Kellerman Playhouse chandeliers are more traditional. Final proof that the dance scene was not filmed at the Davies Building? In the commentary, Eleanor states that the scene, which took a whopping five full days to film, took place in North Carolina. SUCH A BUMMER!!!!

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My stalking trip to Farnsworth Park wasn’t a complete bust, though. While I can pretty much state with absolute certainty that Dirty Dancing’s final dance scene did not take place there, I am happy to report that many other productions have been filmed on the property. 🙂

In American Pie 2, Farnsworth Park stood in for Tall Oaks Band Camp. The amphitheatre area was featured in the scene where Jim played the trombone before a packed audience . . .

. . . and the Davies Memorial Building was used as the camp lodge where Jim and Michelle had a late night chat. You can see the building’s huge stone fireplace behind Jim and Michelle in the above screen capture. Farnsworth Park also made an appearance in the movie’s sequel, American Pie Presents Band Camp.

The Davies Memorial building was also used in the Margaret Chow series Two Sisters and it’s kitchen area was featured in an episode of NCIS, where it was dressed up to look like a morgue. The picnic area of Farnsworth Park has been featured in CSI: Las Vegas, numerous episodes of Ghostwhisperer, and a commercial for Apple Computers.

And even though Dirty Dancing wasn’t filmed there, I still highly recommend stalking Farnsworth Park. It is a really pretty place to walk around, lounge in the shade, or have a picnic. The staff there is also EXTREMELY friendly. I was even given a mini-tour of the property by one of the staff members, who told me all about what filming had taken place there. 🙂 Love it!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Farnsworth Park is located at 568 East Mount Curve Avenue, at the corner of Mount Curve and Lake Avenues, in Altadena. Park hours are from 9 a.m. to sunset. Parking is free. You can visit the park’s official website here.