Amber Frost
16 January 2025
Only Murders in the Building is a murder mystery drama comedy that takes place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The central location of the entire series is the Arconia, a high-end apartment complex built in the early 1900s. The Arconia is technically two large towers, both standing 13 stories tall (the building has 14 floors, but it is missing the 13th floor). The East and West Towers are completely separate, but they do share a common courtyard area between them.
The main trio, Mabel Mora, Oliver Putnam, and Charles-Haden Savage all live in the Arconia’s East Tower. The entire series revolves around these three coming together to investigate bizarre murders that keep happening in the Arconia. The longer the series goes, the more conspiracies seem to seep out of the Arconia’s walls. Some Only Murders fans may not know that the Arconia, while fictional, is based on a very real location in Manhattan.
Only Murders Takes Inspiration from a Famous Historical Building
Since Season One, Only Murders in the Building has actually been filmed in a famous New York City building known as the Belnord. The Belnord was built in 1908 by Hiss and Weekes. Like the Arconia in Only Murders in the Building, the Belnord is also located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 86th and Broadway. The Belnord is a New York City landmark and, in 1980, it was included in the National Register of Historic Places. The Belnord features a beautiful Italian Renaissance–style building that has two separate towers connected by a massive courtyard. Each tower has 13 floors. The building is easily identifiable by the two grand arches that lead into the perfectly manicured courtyard between the towers.
Although Only Murders films in the Belnord, the Arconia isn’t inspired by the Belnord’s history. The Arconia is a fictional apartment complex that shares a lot of similarities with another Manhattan property, the Ansonia. The Ansonia, like the Belnord, is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and it’s located at 2109 Broadway, between 73rd Street and 74th Street. The Ansonia is a 17-story building that features a Beaux-Arts style.
