3. The Belnord aka The Arconia
“Only Murders in the Building” takes place in a fictionally-named apartment building called “The Arconia.” The show does not explicitly share the real name of the pre-war Upper West Side building where all the action takes place, but it’s The Belnord at 225 West 86th Street along Broadway. The Belnord was a real estate speculation project by the Astors, completed in 1909 and designed by architect H. Hobart Weekes. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1966. It’s one of the few buildings in New York City large enough to have an interior courtyard where a car can enter and make a loop around, similar to the Apthorp and Graham Court, real estate projects on the Upper West Side also backed by the Astors. All three have a palazzo-like exterior architecture, imposing front gates, and an open-air courtyard to bring in light to the apartments.
The fictional name “The Arconia” certainly evokes the apartment names of the period and is quite close to The Ansonia, another Upper West Side apartment building completed just a few years before The Belnord (and is featured in a black and white photograph in the Arconia lobby). Graham Court was also featured as a filming location in Mozart in the Jungle. Untapped New York writer Julia Vitullo-Martin, who resides in The Belnord, says that only the exteriors and the courtyard were used for the show and the scenes in the elevator. Most of the interior scenes were filmed at 270 Riverside Drive, including the lobby. Filming for the second season of Only Murders in the Building began in December 2021 and continued into January 2022. Vitullo-Martin tells us, ” The stars were freezing. But they soldiered on.” The opening sequence of season two shows Charles walking on Broadway near the Arconia imagining he has become famous for the podcast, falling into a manhole cover, and landing in an interrogation room at the police. The characters return to the Belnord for Season 3. Stay tuned for more locations as Season 3 continues to air, and keep reading to check out locations from previous seasons!