True crime has certainly evolved into the in-vogue genre du jour, especially when it comes to podcasts. From “Serial” to “Up and Vanished” to “My Favorite Murder,” the platform is rife with macabre offerings. And audiences, it seems, can’t get enough. As Vulture recently espoused, “When future historians look back at this golden age of podcasting, they’ll likely point out that true crime was the engine that boosted the medium into the stratosphere.” So leave it to Steve Martin to devise a new comedy series for Hulu that pokes glorious fun at the subject and its plethora of ardent fans.
“Only Murders in the Building,” co-created by John Hoffman of “Grace and Frankie” fame, hit the streamer this week and has already garnered a 100% and 99% Tomatometer and Audience Score, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. (The trailer alone is enough to set true crime lovers’ hearts aflutter!) The series focuses on a madcap group of neighbors – actor/former television detective Charles-Haden Savage (Martin), Broadway producer Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) – who find themselves at the center of a mysterious death and decide to turn to their favorite medium – podcasting – in an attempt to solve it. The lighthearted romp is set against the backdrop of the trio’s home, a lovely New York building named The Arconia.
There’s bad news for anyone hoping to secure a spot at the luxe co-op themselves, though. The building as seen on TV doesn’t exist IRL. In truth, The Arconia is a mash-up of three different NYC spots, the most recognizable of which is The Belnord, a fashionable Upper West Side property that can be found at 225 W. 86th St. Taking up an entire city block, the limestone and brick monolith was designed in 1908 by H. Hobart Weekes of the Hiss & Weekes architecture firm. Initially built as a luxury apartment house, at the time of its construction it was said to be the largest of its kind in the city, not to mention one of the most plush. The 175 original units were outfitted with mahogany finishes and decorated in a Louis XVI style, with each room featuring outside openings. In a prudent move, all bedrooms were constructed facing the inner courtyard “thus insuring quiet from the street noises, which it is impossible otherwise to attain in the city,” noted a 1908 New-York Tribune article.
Built for the Belnord Realty Company, hence the unusual moniker, rental rates at the handsome Italian Renaissance-style property initially started at $2,400 a year, which equates to about $70,000 ($5,800 a month) in today’s dollars.
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Image Credit: Loopnet Both a New York City Landmark and a National Register of Historic Places designee, The Belnord has been home to numerous luminaries over the years including Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, actor Walter Matthau, Method Acting father Lee Strasberg and comedian Zero Mostel.
Though long celebrated, the property has also seen its fair share of controversy, with a 1994 New York Times article claiming it “bears the distinction of having one of the most fraught real estate histories in all of New York City.”
The problems largely started in 1974 when the building was acquired by Lillian Seril, who went on to own the place for the next two decades. Not long into her tenure, almost half the tenants organized a rent strike that stretched on for an incredible 16 years. The Times notes the litigation that resulted “became so bitter that the Manhattan Housing Court judge originally assigned to the case withdrew in 1980 after the collapse of a settlement he had arranged, saying that the two sides ‘deserved each other.’” As the drawn-out legal battle crept onward, the once-grand Belnord fell into serious disrepair.
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Image Credit: Compass Enter Ziel Feldman of HFZ Capital Group who shelled out a whopping $555 million to buy the property in 2015. It was actually the second time the developer had acquired the building, having also been part of a trio of investors who purchased it from Seril in 1994. This time around, Feldman had his sights set on transforming the apartment house into a luxe condominium complex and promptly commissioned Robert A.M. Stern Architects to complete the lofty task. The result of their efforts is nothing short of stunning! Today, The Belnord is once again a Grande Dame of the Upper West Side!
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Image Credit: StreetEasy Rising 12 stories over the sidewalk below, the property’s edifice is imposing if not somewhat unassuming save for a pair of two-story archways leading off 86th St. Capped by vaulted ceilings covered in rich frescoes, the passages are a sight to behold.
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Image Credit: Evan Joseph Tucked just beyond them is the building’s true crown jewel, an exquisite 22,000-square-foot courtyard (one of the largest in New York!) awash with green trees, lush foliage and crushed gravel pathways. The sublime idyll, which was reimagined by Hollander Design Landscape Architects as part of the condo conversion process, is tantamount to a private park, a resplendent oasis in the middle of the bustling city. At the center of the sprawling refuge, which is surrounded by a massive oval-shaped driveway, is the building’s original fountain, restored to its early 1900’s splendor.
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Image Credit: The Belnord Inside, The Belnord’s sleek and contemporary common spaces are plentiful. Residents can avail themselves of a two-story sport court, a fitness center with a yoga studio, a colorful children’s playroom, a game room and a spacious entertainment lounge complete with a catering kitchen. There are also 24-hour doormen, porters and gate attendants on hand to cater to one’s every need.
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Image Credit: The Belnord Measuring two to six bedrooms, the residences themselves run anywhere from $4 to $12 million and boast such fine amenities as 10-foot ceilings, white oak chevron flooring, in-unit washers and dryers, wood-burning fireplaces and Gaggenau appliances. The Belnord is luxury living at its finest and quite an unlikely backdrop for a grizzly killing, making it a deliciously dichotomous spot to set “Only Murders in the Building.”
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Image Credit: HFZ Capital Group Of the inspiration for The Arconia, production designer Curt Beech, who was also behind the look of “BlacKkKlansman,” told Architectural Digest, “The setting is based on a conglomeration of buildings where the courtyards take up an entire city block. There are not many of them left in the city and they are kind of unicorns. We were leading into this idea of a world within a world.”
The Belnord certainly fits that bill and, as such, was used for all exterior shots of The Arconia.
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Image Credit: Evan Jpseph In an interesting twist, the building’s bucolic courtyard was made to appear far less lush onscreen. Though the garden beds lining it were left intact, myriad trees were removed, either digitally or physically, perhaps to make the space seem somewhat dated and faded from glory, as is representative of the show’s central characters.
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Image Credit: Corcoran Only the outside of The Belnord was utilized in the shoot. For scenes involving The Arconia’s elegant lobby, cast and crew headed about a mile north to 270 Riverside Dr., another grand pre-war building of the Upper West Side. Featuring an exquisitely plastered coved ceiling and ornamental archways at every turn, the stunning chamber (which is shown from differing angles above) is far more ornate and evokes a far more bygone era than the contemporary living spaces at The Belnord, which likely explains the location shift.
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Image Credit: Hulu Don’t go looking for the apartments of the main characters at either building, though. It turns out those spaces, as well as the hallways and elevators situated outside of them, are just as fictional as The Arconia itself. Vibrant though they may may seem, they were all just part of an elaborately designed set created by Beech at Silvercup Studios North in the Bronx.
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Image Credit: Silverstrand Films “Only Murders in the Building” is not the only production The Belnord has played host to. The location also appeared in the 2011 thriller “Occupant” as the spot where Danny Hill (Van Hansis) attempts to take over the lease on his grandmother’s rent-controlled apartment.