Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short were seen together, mid-stride, and in the telltale power-walk of the active albeit fictional detective. Where were they? Only beneath the elegant iron gates of the historic Upper West Side building that’s back, once again, to play the building in Only Murders In (… that) Building, for season 5.
The plot thickens.
Last year, we gave you a rundown on the Belnord, aka the Arconia: the 13-story, Beaux Arts-style residence first built in 1908 by architect H. Hobart Weekes of Hiss and Weekes. Here’s a recap, if you missed it: In 1966, the Belnord was given New York City landmark status and later inducted into the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the building was bought by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) and subsequently updated. “One of the best things about working on the Belnord was returning the building and its apartments specifically to their original glory,” a partner at RAMSA Sargent Gardiner said.
The original glory is clearly the reason for the Belnord’s casting as the Arconia. If you haven’t been watching, Only Murders In the Building is a (lighthearted) mystery show about three people, neighbors and strangers, who come together to try to solve the cases of three (initial) murders in their building. There’s a hint of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None inflected by the citizen sleuthing of Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy wrapped up in Hollywood star power and the undeniable allure of historic Upper West Side New York.
Which brings us back to the building. Though the show’s plot unfolds largely on a sound stage, what shots of the Belnord bring is a mood: This isn’t the New York of Sex and the City, signaled by brownstones, Times Square, and the «it» girl drink of choice formerly known as the cosmopolitan. This is turn-of-the-century New York. This is Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence. In this New York, the choice of the color of flowers sent to a beloved could make or break a social standing. This is a New York stepping out of the Gilded Age: Apartment buildings for the middle class, underground subways for everyone, and in 1910, Penn Station, to link Manhattan and New Jersey for commuters.
225 West 86th Street is one of the last remaining residential buildings in New York City that spans a whole block.
The Belnord is one of a few buildings in the city that cover an entire city block (another is the Apthorp, which though famous in its own right is also famous for being the subject of Nora Ephron’s 2006 essay «Moving On, A Love Story,» in The New Yorker). It’s got an enormous courtyard––called one of the biggest in Manhattan at the time––and a veritable maze of a floor plan. If ever a building screamed social tension, mystery, turn-of-the-century melodrama and enduring New York elegance all at once, it’s this one.
“I was obsessed,” the show’s co-creator Hoffman told the New York Times in 2023. “I knew we could make something as elevated as that amazing building. It’s a cliché to say that the building itself is a character, but I like the challenge of getting beyond that cliché a bit.”
So while details on the 5th season are still a little murky (People says it will probably attend to Lester’s death; iykyk), if the chosen building has anything to tell us, we can be sure there will be more of everything fans have come to love. And we’re here for the architecture and decor, as always.
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