Why Are Romantic Comedies So In Love With The Same NYC Building, One Bryant Park?

Imagine a character that appeared in romantic comedy films with the same frequency as Julia Roberts did in the ‘90s or Matthew McConaughey did in the early 2000s or Judy Greer has while playing the best friend. Now imagine you hardly even noticed this character. Hard to believe, right? Enter One Bryant Park, romantic comedy’s go-to location for letting you know when a character has a very fancy and important job in New York City.

Located at the corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in New York City, One Bryant Park or The Bank of America Tower has been seen in 3 romantic comedies in the last 3 months alone: I Feel Pretty, Ibiza, and Set It Up. And, fun fact: in the last two, both feature a young woman named Harper (played by Gillian Jacobs and Zoey Deutch, respectively) who works for a scary female boss (Michaela Watkins and Lucy Liu) at their trendy jobs in the building.

Other productions that have used the location include Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Younger, and The Newsroom. So what makes this building so damn popular for TV and film productions in New York City? Decider spoke with Jordan Barowitz, Vice President for Public Affairs for the Durst Organization, which owns the building, who explained exactly how the lights, cameras, and action find their way to the building.

After getting tons of calls inquiring about using the building for shoots, the company decided to get organized and take control of the opportunity by building a program that could market their buildings to film, TV, and commercial locations. And that was the right move, considering production in New York City is thriving due to the tax credit many projects are allowed. Location manager Alex Borys was brought on to both send and field potential offers for productions looking to film in the spacious lobby overlooking Bryant Park.

“We love when our buildings are featured in film and television,” Barowitz said — but that doesn’t mean it’s always that simple. After all, these are real functioning and bustling workplaces. “Buildings are set up for the benefit of tenants who are our customers. We don’t like to disturb these people; they pay rent, and oftentimes quite a bit.” So when a production signs up to use their workspace, “You really have to manage this in a way that does not negatively impact your tenants.”

But, much to Barowtiz’s delight, they’ve found that the tenants actually enjoy housing productions in the gorgeous and famous building lobby. “We’ve found that when we shoot in the lobby, it’s an inconvenience because you have to close it for a few minutes, but that the tenants like having a film production going on, seeing the excitement and the stars, and seeing how that world works.”

So how does it work? Well for One Bryant Park, it’s simply a matter of logistics. “You have a large volume of space so you can fit a lot of equipment in the lobby and lot of people. And then we have entrances both on 42nd and 43rd Street and on 6th Avenue, so 3 entrances. Logistically, it makes it easier to shoot in there.”

And aesthetically, that particular lobby is not too shabby either. And while it seems to  be a favorite for rom-coms, Barowitz said, “I don think it appeals to a particular genre. The lobby is beautiful and it’s big and it looks like what a big corporate office building lobby should like. It’s easy to shoot in because it has multiple entrances in it. You can shut down one entrance and not shut down the building.” Plus, it’s a matter of efficiency as well. “We know how to accommodate film crews and know what’s involved and have some expertise. It’s the combination of our expertise and working with tenants and film crews and aesthetics of the lobby which just screams beautiful corporate fancy office building.”

And that’s not all One Bryant Park has to offer: sure, it looks nice, it’s got the space, but it’s the fact that the space is so popular that also makes it enticing to production teams. Because this building knows how to get the deal done — and quick. “Each one of these deals involves a fair amount of paperwork back and forth, signing an agreement, legal departments. We know what matters, we know how to get these deals done in a timely matter. This industry moves at a lightening speed,” Barowitz said, estimating most features have about 30 days to shoot and a TV episode less than 2 weeks. “These deals can be presented to us on Tuesday with shooting on Thursday,” he said, explaining precisely why that turnaround time would be an added bonus.

While Barowitz says One Bryant Park fully understands the weekday hustle and they’re happy to accommodate, he offers, “Certainly it’s easier to shoot on nights and weekends.” And though the floors above the lobby are probably just as beautiful as the ground floor, it’s unlikely you’ve seen much of those offices in films as Barowitz reports that the building is 100% occupied, so there’s not a whole lot of empty office space waiting around to be filled by movie stars.

One Bryant Park has proven itself as an efficient and pretty location, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a few boundaries of their own. “Generally, we don’t like to blow up buildings,” Barowitz said of the Durst Organizations locations, but as far as Set It Up’s closing shot of the characters sharing a smooch outside the building? Well, One Bryant Park loves a happy ending just as much as the rest of us.

Where to watch Set It Up