Back in the Building
Production designer Patrick Howe details his work on Hulu and Disney+ drama Only Murders in the Building, revealing which iconic New York landmark inspired season five’s ‘hero set’ and why the show’s characters don’t get a chance to redecorate.
There’s no doubt that the Arconia, the titular apartment block in Hulu and Disney+ drama Only Murders in the Building, is one of the key characters in the series. And while each new season comes with fresh murder, there is also a story that utilises a previously unseen part of the grand building.
From different characters’ homes to hidden elevators, secret tunnels, the Arconia’s courtyard and its little-seen west tower – not to mention a Broadway theatre – every new murder mystery places the characters in unfamiliar territory.
That trend continues in the show’s recently launched fifth season, which sees neighbours-turned-podcasters Charles, Oliver and Mabel mix with mobsters and billionaires as they attempt to shine a light on another murder in the building and discover an underground casino room that could be key to solving the mystery.
After their beloved doorman, Lester, dies under suspicious circumstances, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) refuse to believe it was an accident. Their investigation plunges them into the shadowy corners of New York and beyond – where they uncover a dangerous web of secrets connecting powerful billionaires, old-school mobsters and the mysterious residents of the Arconia. The trio discover a deeper divide between the storied city they thought they knew and the new New York evolving around them – one where the old mob fights to hold on as newer, even more dangerous players emerge.
“Well, every season is a new challenge. Just when you think you have maybe already seen it all or done it all, there’s something new, which is what I just love about doing it,” production designer Patrick Howe tells DQ. “Every single season, there’s a new idea, a new approach, and it’s like, ‘Oh, I didn’t see that coming.’ So that’s what’s really nice about it.
Though it stands to reason that a show ostensibly about a building should have so much attention on its setting, it’s not often that so much focus is placed on a location. “Most designers are used to creating an environment for a show, but it’s rarely about the scenery. Quite often, there can be entire shows where none of the story is about where it takes place,” Howe continues. “This is the opposite of that, so there’s a lot of spotlight on it all the time.”
That means that every hallway and corner of the Arconia – which is modelled on the real Belnord building in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighbourhood in New York City – has to be perfect. But despite the often heightened drama that takes place in the series, Howe wants every aspect of the Arconia to be plausible enough that the building doesn’t distract viewers too much.
When it comes to building the sets at the show’s studio base each year, “there’s generally a lot of brand new stuff because the things are so specific to a new storyline about a new part of the building we haven’t seen before,” notes the designer, who joined the series created by Martin and John Hoffman in S2. “Sometimes I’m able to recycle a little bit, but it’s never a whole set. It might just be a door or a fireplace, a certain architectural amenity that I could save or a little bit of furniture.
“Sometimes, with some of the set dressing we purchase, we might be able to reupholster a sofa a few seasons later if we only saw it one time and it’ll never be recognisable in this new context. But generally it has to be fresh.”
Howe doesn’t have much time to get the Arconia into shape, however, as it’s usually only seven weeks before shooting starts that he gets to learn what the storylines will involve – and where they will take place.
“Sometimes, about 10 or 12 weeks ahead of us beginning our prep for the new season, I can have phone conversations with John, because the writers room is already open, so he’s well into it with the writers, and that’s very helpful,” he says. “But generally, I wouldn’t really know any specifics or see an outline or a script until at most seven weeks before we start filming.”
When it comes to S5, one new setting immediately stands out – the underground casino room, complete with a secret keycard entry system, that becomes an integral location for a plot involving a second murder relating to an infamous Staten Island mobster. It is a lavish and ornate space, with decorated ceilings and sections separated by arches lit with numerous exposed lightbulbs. A number of card tables and a bar fill the room, which is where the central trio also encounter billionaires Sebastian ‘Bash’ Steed, Jay Pflug and Camila White (guest stars Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman and Renée Zellweger respectively) for the first time.
“It definitely was intended to be the setting that would have the most scenes written for it for the season, and that the story would revolve around it,” Howe says. “I did know from the beginning that events would unfold in that set, but I certainly didn’t know how or in what context. But that helped signify its importance and the decor of it. The whole premise of the look was built on the fact that John wanted to establish it was underground; that it was a basement level in the Arconia and that it was under the courtyard.”
The courtyard seen in the show is one of the few real locations where the Belnord stands in for the fictional Arconia. Oliver’s wedding to Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep) took place there in S4. “So audiences could picture something that’s under that,” Howe says. “What drove me to the look of it was the style of subterranean areas of large buildings that were built at that time, at the turn of the 20th century, and the type of construction methods that dictated large piers with supporting arches.
“That’s how you held up large spans of open space. It was long before lots of high beams and other more modern methods of construction. I riffed on a very famous building in New York City, Grand Central Station, because it has several levels of compressed arches like that, and I thought that would be a fast way architecturally to convey, in all likelihood, an underground space.”
Other key sets in S5 include the Arconia’s penthouse suite, which has been home to residents including Sting and Amy Schumer (playing themselves) and Paul Rudd’s character Ben Glenroy, whose death was the main focus of S3. It now belongs to Beanie Feldstein’s pop star Althea (aka Thē).
But while Howe might expect to evolve or change the style of the characters’ apartments, and the Arconia itself, over the show’s multiple seasons, his hands are tied by the premise of the series. As has become its established format, a new murder is discovered at the end of each season, and the next season follows the investigation to identify the killer, meaning very little time passes between seasons.
“There’s only been one exception – it jumped one year from season two to season three – but other than that, you’re picking up right where you left off,” Howe says. “So there’s rarely an opportunity to justify that Oliver or Charles decided to get some new furniture or redecorate.
“In this season, when we see Mabel starting to furnish her own little studio apartment in the west tower, I wanted to protract that a little bit because it wouldn’t be plausible that when we first see it in season five, it’s all done. It’s like, ‘Oh, wait, it’s only been three days since the murder, and since we were last in there with nothing. How could she have done all that in three days?’ So things have stayed the same, mostly because of that. They also look great. They are very telling of each of those characters.”
Does that mean Mabel will have to wait several more seasons before her apartment is fully furnished? Howe laughs. “She’ll have a fully finished set by the time season five is over.”
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