famous buildings – Page 10

January 6, 2009November 6, 2020

The Ransom Apartment

This past December while in New York I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk Mel Gibson and Rene Russo’s Upper East Side apartment building from the 1996 movie Ransom. I found this location in fave stalking book New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide. The apartment building is very beautiful in person, with ornate stone balconies, large windows overlooking Central Park, and a green slate roof. The building just screams “wealthy”, so it is easy to see why producers chose to use it as the residence of Mel’s mega-millionaire character in the movie. I actually haven’t seen Ransom in quite a few years and I can’t remember exactly what his building looked like in the film, so I can’t say if it looks the same now as it did twelve years ago when filming took place.

The Ransom building was built in 1917 by C.P.H. Gilbert, an extremely popular New York architect during the early 1900’s. The boutique apartment building, designed in the Francois I style, was only the second upscale apartment building to ever be constructed on Fifth Avenue . The building, although huge, consists of only 12 different apartments, one on each of the building’s twelve floors. One is currently for sale at the bargain price of $12,950,000. 🙂 You can sneak a peek inside of the building at the apartment’s real estate website. I’ve never considered myself at all voyeuristic, but I seriously can’t get enough of stuff like this. Open houses, real estate websites, vacation rental sites, etc. LOVE THEM! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Ransom apartment is located at 1067 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. It is situated almost directly next door to the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpiece the Guggenheim Museum, which is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue.

December 11, 2008February 13, 2009

"Welcome Home, Baby"

Got home from New York on Tuesday afternoon and was already so homesick for my favorite city in the world that I had to immediately sit down and watch the Sex and the City movie in its two and a half hour entirety to make myself feel better. So today I thought I’d blog about one of the SATC locations I visited while in the Big Apple.

While in New York I just had to make a pilgrimage to the Fifth Avenue building where Carrie and Big purchase their dream apartment in the SATC movie. The building shows up at the very beginning of the movie, in the scene when Carrie and Big go apartment hunting and discover “real estate heaven” in the building’s stunning penthouse apartment. While Carrie walks around the space, musing about what it would be like to live in such an incredible apartment, Big says “Welcome home, baby.” Oh how I wish I was being welcomed home at New York apartment, too! 🙂

The apartment building looks exactly the same as it did in the movie and while I was standing there I could almost picture Carrie running across the street to meet Big under the front awning. 🙂 I found the location of this building in the Sex and the City: The Movie book, which features an entire chapter devoted to locations featured in the movie. LOVE IT! 🙂 According to the book only the exterior of the Fifth Avenue building was used in the filming of Sex and the City. The interiors were shot at a Spanish Style four story walk-up located on 62nd street. You can actually tell in the above screenshots that the front doors of the interior shots do not match up with the real apartment’s front doors. (The Fifth avenue building has a single exterior door, while the building used for the interior shots has a double door. The iron work on both sets of doors does not match up, either. LOL!) Looks like I am going to have to stalk the building used for the interiors the next time I am in New York. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Carrie and Big’s dream apartment is located at 1010 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street.

December 8, 2008February 15, 2009

The Dakota

Today is the 28th anniversay of John Lennon’s death, so I thought I would devote today’s blog to him. I have never really been much into music (my idea of a music icon is Britney Spears, if that tells you anything!) so I was never a fan of John Lennon or the Beatles. My mom, however, loved The Beatles (especially Ringo Starr) and during her teenage years even climbed up the side of a Japanese hotel where the Beatles were staying to try to catch a glimpse of him. She also snuck backstage during a Beach Boys concert, ran up to Dennis Wilson, kissed him on the lips, then ran back out, but that’s a whole other story. Now at least you know where I get it from. 🙂 Anyway, since my family always takes a New York vacation during the first week of December, I often find myself in Manhattan on the anniversary of John’s murder. Last December 8th my boyfriend and I decided to stop by both John’s former apartment building and his memorial to see if anything was going on. And boy was there!

Johns’ memorial, which is called Strawberry Fields, is a 2.5 acre tear-dropped shaped section of Central Park that was commissioned by Yoko Ono and designed by landscape architect Bruce Kelly. The memorial, which is considered an international peace garden, was opened to the public on October 9, 1985 (John’s birthday). The garden consists of 161 different varieties of flowers and plants, one representing each country of the world. Each year, on the anniversary of his death, countless fans make a pilgrimage to the memorial to honor his memory. Last year there were so many people there I couldn’t even get a picture of the famous “Imagine” plaque which was donated to the memorial by the Italian city of Naples. It’s amazing to me that 28 years after his death John can still draw such a huge crowd. On the anniversary of his death, most mourners pretty much camp out at the memorial for the entire day, singing Beatles songs, sharing John Lennon stories, and grieving the death of the legendary musician. It is really a site to behold. Last year, amid news crews conducting interviews, musicians singing tributes, and tourists taking photographs, I just had to snap a photo of the “Designated Quiet Zone” sign which sits at the entrance to the memorial. LOL

After visiting Strawberry Fields, I dragged my boyfriend across the street to John Lennon’s former residence, the Dakota apartment building. It was at the entrance to this building that John was killed 28 years ago today. On December 8, 1980, after finishing a session at a recording studio, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were driven by limo to their Upper West Side apartment just a few minutes before 11pm. As they made their way to the entrance of the building, deranged fan Mark David Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back. John collapsed in the entryway of the Dakota and was pronounced dead a short time later while on an operating table at Roosevelt Hospital.

The beautiful and unique Dakota apartment building has long been a celebrity haven. John and Yoko weren’t the only stars to call it home. Lauren Bacall, Judy Holliday, Jack Palance, John Madden, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, Gilda Radner, Paul Simon, Connie Chung and Boris Karloff have all lived at the building at one time or another. The Dakota is also a popular filming location! It was featured in Vanilla Sky (as Tom Cruise’s apartment), Rosemary’s Baby (as Mia Farrow’s pad), and House of Strangers.

Construction was completed on the famous Dakota Apartment building in the year 1884. It was built by architect Harry J. Hardenbergh, who also designed the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Carnegie Hall and, my favorite building in all of New York, the famed Plaza Hotel. The Dakota is very similar in looks to the Plaza, actually, with the same peaked slate and copper roofs, corner turrets, and French chateau accents. The Dakota is absolutely stunning in person and I highly recommend stalking it – even if you aren’t a Lennon fan!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Dakota is located at 1 West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of New York. Strawberry Fields memorial is located just across the street from the Dakota in Central Park. The entrance to the 2.5 acre memorial begins at Central Park West and 72nd Street.

August 20, 2008December 6, 2013

Marilyn’s Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

UPDATE: Catch the Hollywood magic of Marilyn Monroe in a new play based on the famed actress! BarrysTickets.com has Marilyn Monroe theater tickets get yours today!

I know I have blogged about the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel quite a few times in the past, but what can I say? Every time I go there I discover something new! A few weeks ago while doing some Hollywood stalking with my mom, we took a little lunch break at the Tropicana Bar next to the Roosevelt Hotel’s pool. While we were there I happened to ask the pool security guard if he knew where Marilyn Monroe’s former room was located. Not only did he know where it was, but it turns out we were sitting directly beneath it! 🙂

For about two years, shortly before she became the world’s most famous starlet, Marilyn lived in a poolside suite at the Roosevelt. At the time MM was fresh from her first divorce and her modeling career was just taking off. According to the security guard, Marilyn’s room is one of the largest rooms in the entire hotel, with a huge wraparound balcony overlooking the pool. A mirror that hung in Marilyn’s room during the time she called the Roosevelt home now hangs in a mezzanine hallway just off the hotel lobby. Marilyn must have truly loved the Roosevelt, as she doesn’t seem to want to leave. Rumors persist that the hotel is still haunted by her ghost to this day.

As I have said many times before, the Roosevelt is one of my very favorite places in all of LA. I highly recommend stalking it if you have the chance. You can even spend the night in the Marilyn Monroe suite, which is apparently the hotel’s most requested room. 🙂 Looks like I need to plan a little overnight stalking trip!! 🙂 The Tropicana Bar is a fabulous place to grab a drink and a bite to eat – they have GREAT food and the staff could not be friendlier!! But be prepared, the menu is pricey. It is worth every penny, though, as it is one of the hippest spots in LA and is pretty much celeb central. The poolside bar is one of Lauren Conrad’s favorite places to hang out and it has even shown up in a few episodes of The Hills. 🙂

In other Marilyn news, I just finished an absolutely fascinating book about Marilyn’s life called The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe . If you are at all an MM fan, I highly recommend reading.

You can read my other posts about the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel here and here.

UPDATE:

Marilyn Monroe fans visiting the L.A. area will be excited to hear that tickets to a new stage show chronicling the starlet’s life are currently available at Barry’sTickets.com. Marilyn – the Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical, comes to Los Angeles from London’s West End and recounts the tragic behind-the-scenes life of the world’s most iconic blond. The musical, which was choreographed and directed by the Oliver and Evening Standard award-winning director Peter Schaufuss, provides audiences a glimpse of the private world Marilyn rarely shared with the public – the world of a woman who achieved every success imaginable, except for true happiness. The show features a cast of fifteen remarkable actors and showcases fifteen lively song and dance numbers including Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind”, which the singer originally wrote in honor of Marilyn in 1973, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the hit movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” from the 1960 movie Let’s Make Love. Don’t miss Marilyn – The Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in downtown Hollywood. Marilyn’s room is located directly above the Tropicana, the Roosevelt’s poolside bar.

August 9, 2008February 13, 2009

The Beverly Beat

Thanks to my good friend Mike over at MovieShotsLA I was able to stalk Brandon and Steve’s newspaper office from the original Beverly Hills, 90210 series. On the final years of the original 90210, Brandon and Steve ran their own newspaper called “The Beverly Beat” and the location of the newspaper office had eluded me for some time.

I had long been convinced that the Beverly Beat office was located above Louise’s Trattoria restaurant on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena (pictured above), but since I do not have the final seasons of 90210 on tape, I was never able to confirm my hunch. Then I met Mike, 90210 stalking expert, who told me that Brandon’s office was actually located at the Baine Building right on Hollywood Boulevard. So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it.

The Baine Building was built in the Spanish Revival style by businessman Harry M. Baine and designed by architecture firm Gogerty & Weyl in 1926. Harry M. Baine, a prominent businessman and Los Angeles County Supervisor, was also the man responsible for the creation of the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. During Christmastime in 1928, hoping to promote his business and drive sales, Baine renamed Hollywood Boulevard “Santa Claus Lane” and hired real reindeer to pull sleighs down the street. And thus a tradition was born.

The Baine Building is a beautiful building in Hollywood that I highly recommend stalking. I wonder if the builiding will make an appearance on the new 90210 series. The building was also replicated in Disneyland’s California Adventure Park, so you can also stalk it there. 🙂 lol You can read this interesting article about the Disney replication.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Baine Building is located at 6605 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, just a few blocks from the Hollywood & Highland Center. Just a half a block away at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard is Musso and Frank’s Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and a great place to grab a bite to eat! 🙂