Leo’s Apartment Building from “Relativity”

During my recent Relativity location-finding fest, I also managed to track down the apartment building where Leo Roth (David Conrad) lived with his quirky roommate, Doug (Adam Goldberg) – who was actually my favorite character – on the show.  I really could kick myself over this one, though, because I began searching for the property while watching the third episode of the series, which was titled “First Impressions”, and did not have many clues to help with the hunt.  Had I waited until the fifth episode, “Moving,” in which Leo’s address was literally spelled out, it would have been a much quicker find.  Instead, I spent a ridiculous amount of time scanning the background of “First Impressions,” looking for readable signage on storefronts near Leo’s place and then Googling to see if said businesses were still in existence.  Thankfully, after numerous searches, I finally found one that was.

In “First Impressions,” a sign reading “Asia Auto Center” was visible across the street from Leo’s apartment.  An internet search led me to a listing for an Asia Auto Center at 3700 West Pico Boulevard in Arlington Heights.  Sure enough, when I looked at the address via Google Street View, there was Leo’s building right across the street.

In reality, Leo’s building is located at 1310 4th Avenue, just south of West Pico Boulevard.  So when I watched the “Moving” episode a few nights after finding the place and heard it mentioned several times that Leo lived near “Pico and 4th Avenue,” I had a major face-palm moment.  D’oh!

Pictured below are a few of the many neighborhood signs that I had tried to read and do Google searches for.  As you can see, it was not the easiest of tasks.

It is said several times on the series that Leo’s neighborhood is a bit sketchy and I can attest to that fact being true in real life, as well.  Just as I pulled into a parking space near the building, a man hopped over the fence of the business across the street, opened the dumpster located there and began throwing its contents onto the sidewalk.  Yeah, I pretty much could not wait to get out of there, hence the limited number of photographs I have for this post.

The full exterior of Leo’s building is never actually shown on Relativity – at least not in any of the episodes I have re-watched up until this point.  Typically, tight shots of the doorway and balcony are all that appear onscreen.

Thanks to that doorway, with its ornate casing, and balcony, with its wrought-iron detailing, the building has a very New Orleansy-feel.

The structure still looks very much the same today as it did when Relativity was filmed 18 years ago.  As you can see below, not even the address plate has been altered since 1996!  Love it!

The Arlington Heights building was only used for exterior filming on the series.  The ramshackle interior of Leo and Doug’s loft existed only on a studio soundstage.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Leo’s apartment from Relativity is located at 1310 4th Avenue in Los Angeles’ Arlington Heights neighborhood.

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