Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474575
is, of course, not one building. While the exterior location is identifi able, the building's interiors are the greatest hits of several special New York apartment blocks built around a central courtyard. The central courtyard apartment building in Manhattan is a dying breed, but the history of this unicorn of architecture informed everything the Art Department did inside and out. Clinton & Russell's Apthorp and Graham Court were the fi rst ones we looked at, and visits to these gave us ideas for the apartments' octagonal foyers, mosaic fl oors and some key architectural details. Assistant Art Director Martin Fahrer is a rare book terrier (and foster dog parent) and sought as many diff erent archival photographs and plans as his brain could hold as he was drawing the spaces with Dennis Moyes and Peter Dorsey. From the Belnord (recently restored by Robert A.M. Stern), the production photographed plates from the actual courtyard to use in our backings and VFX work. This was also the location we shot for The Arconia's exterior. The Upper West Side's stately Ansonia, by William Stokes and Paul Duboy, inspired the hallways and common areas, and Henry Hardenbergh's Dakota, with its ever-changing fl oor plans, informed the plans of all of our spaces. This ground-up approach helped to root the sets in reality and history. VR Is Virtually Required After the plans were worked out on the stages, the design team immediately went to 3D models, and massed the spaces to get the right scale. Illustrator li ashfi then turned these into a white, lightly rendered virtual reality model with TwinMotion, and the result was magical. This was my fi rst A. BOARD FOR THE STUDIO PRESENTATION, SHOWING SOME ORIGINAL APARTMENT LAYOUTS, THE ORIGINAL FAÇADE, AND RENOVATED COURTYARD VIEWS. B. MABEL'S APARTMENT FROM A RHINO MODEL AND TWINMOTION VR BY ILLUSTRATOR ALI KASHFI. C. THE ARCONIA HALLWAY FROM ALI KASHFI'S DIGITAL MODEL. B C A