TAKE a look inside The Undoing’s lavish properties featured on the hit HBO show – including Donald Sutherland’s $21 million NYC apartment.
The hit HBO drama and suspense-thriller has captivated audiences over the past month and a half, with the season finale taking place last Sunday night.
With an all-star cast, the David E. Kelley original featured Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in a gripping murder mystery plot.
The finale was impressively the most watched night for an HBO original series since the season 2 finale of Big Little Lies, also a Nicole and David collaboration, with three million viewers tuned in.
With a boastful setting in outstanding NYC architecture, many have wondered where the featured apartments lie in the scheme of the world-renowned city.
The Undoing’s Director, Susanne Bier, addressed the plan of the character’s dwellings to Vulture, saying: “My initial thought was capturing the experience of walking in Central Park and looking at those apartments and wondering what it’s like.”
She then told Architectural Digest in reference to Nicole’s on-screen father’s home: “It’s intentionally austere and has a dignified sense of style.”
The luxurious and princely New York City apartment that houses Donald Sutherland in the HBO show is actually a mixture of three entities.
The stately property is truthfully comprised of two Central Park-facing multi-million dollar homes, combined with a specially constructed set at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens.
The exterior of the apartment owned by Donald’s character, Franklin Reinhart, comes from Brisbane House at 1215 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, where homes average $3.5 million on the market.
The lobby of the building was also used for filming, most specifically for the scene where police waited to question Nicole’s character, Grace, about the murder.
The interior shots of Franklin’s swanky abode were taken at 1107 Fifth Avenue, a property that sold in 2019 for $21 million, in conjunction with constructed scenes at the Queen’s studio.
The Fifth Avenue apartment was used for Franklin’s balcony, dining room, bedroom, living room and even depicted the entrance to Grace’s therapy office.
Although on sale during filming, The Daily Mail reported the stunning home was previously owned by ex CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer.
Grace and her son‘s bedrooms, in addition to the great blue room where the stars are shown playing piano and chess, were built at the Astoria studio.
Lester Cohen, production designer for the series, said in regards to the design: “We constructed some hallways that matched the existing location in order to create believable transitions as characters moved from one part of the apartment on location, into another part of the apartment on the studio set.”
Nicole and Hugh’s played apartment was actually a five-story Upper East Side brownstone, posed between Madison and Fifth Avenue, a short distance from Central Park at 8 East 63rd Street.
This address was actually used in the script of the series, but the apartment itself was renovated in order to fit the atmosphere of the show.
Production adjusted the original home which was neutral with bright, large windows and high ceilings and added a darker appeal for filming.
The Fraser home is on the market for nearly $30 million.
Hugh’s character Jonathan spent the length of the series on trial for the murder of his mistress Elena, played by Matilda De Angelis.
In a fear-gripping moment at the end of the finale, Jonathan was revealed to have killed the mother of his second child, Elena, brutally in her art studio.
The studio in question was actually in Harlem at 181 Lenox Avenue at 119th Street, and her family home was 102 E. 103rd Street.
Henry Fraser, played by actor Noah Jupe, is said to attend school at Reardon, which is actually Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 75 E. 93rd Street.
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This is the same location where Gossip Girl filmed their outdoor school scenes.
The beach house where the murder weapon is concealed and later discovered lies in Rocky Point in North Fork, Long Island and was also featured in HBO’s Girls.
The property is available for rental at $1,100 a night and is described via Airbnb to be “a super romantic six-bedroom house, originally built as a coast guard life saving station in 1893.”
The locations chosen proved to be the perfect set, as millions hung spellbound throughout the short from late October on.