An Art Deco government tower and courthouse sit at one end of Van Nuys Boulevard, with a general aviation airport a few blocks northwest.
What Van Nuys looks like
A government complex holds an eight storey Art Deco city hall and two Superior Court buildings at Sylvan Street and the boulevard. A general aviation airport sits a few blocks northwest, industrial yards spreading out around it.
City Hall is a stepped tower in cream terra cotta, finished in 1932 in the Zigzag Moderne style, with fluted pilasters running up its face. The two Superior Court buildings face each other across the street inside the same complex. A federal building and a state office building stand nearby, and the post office close by has a blue and white U.S. Mail seal set into its brick front.
The boulevard runs north from the government complex past single storey storefronts under palm trees, a wide roadway with turn lanes and heavy overhead wiring. A bail bonds office keeps a lit arrow sign over its awning, and independent restaurants hang hand painted marquees along the curb. Gas station canopies and a mid rise office tower or two break the roofline farther south near Sepulveda Boulevard.
The airport covers 725 acres northwest of the boulevard, its two runways running through blocks of hangars and private jet ramps. The streets around the field are wide and mostly industrial, low buildings with loading docks and few pedestrians. At Victory Boulevard and Tyrone Avenue, a used car lot now stands where a gun shop once operated.
Shot in Van Nuys
City Hall's tower played a fictional police station in The Mask. Cannon and Matt Houston both used the tower undressed, as itself. The Terminator arms itself at the corner of Victory Boulevard and Tyrone Avenue, at the real gun shop that is now the Car Planet used car lot. Pimp My Ride used as its build garage from season five on, a working dealership rather than a set.
Casablanca
Played Casablanca's Metropolitan Airport, Casablanca, Morocco, 1941
Major Strasser's arrival was filmed on location on July 10, 1942, at the real Metropolitan Airport. The scene used a Travel-Air light transport plane; the film's well known farewell scene was shot separately on a Warner Bros. soundstage with scale models, not at this airport.
Silent Running
Played the forest domes aboard the spacecraft Valley Forge, the future
The forest dome interiors of the spacecraft Valley Forge were built and filmed inside a newly completed aircraft hangar on the field. The domes are windowless and fully enclosed, so the finished film never shows the airport building around them.
Airwolf
Played the fictional charter company Santini Air
The series based its fictional charter company Santini Air in a hangar on the field, and background aircraft from the airport appear across several episodes. The real flight capable helicopter used in the show was owned by Jetcopters, Inc., also based at the airport.
Entourage
HBO's series shot its final scenes at Van Nuys Airport, appearing as itself among the private and corporate jets on the ramp. No dressing was used, since the field's own traffic matches the show's setting.
What Van Nuys can double for
Burbank Civic Center in Burbank, California
Burbank City Hall is a similarly scaled WPA moderne government tower with a plain concrete form, a few miles away in the same San Fernando Valley. Neither tower has a name or crest visible from the street. has already stood in for a fictional police station on screen for the same plain, uncrested look. Burbank's tower is four storeys with symmetrical wings around a courtyard fountain, shorter and squarer than Van Nuys City Hall's eight storey stepped tower, so a full elevation shot gives the difference away. Try searching WPA moderne city hall now.
Sherman Way in Reseda, Los Angeles, California
Sherman Way runs through Reseda a few miles west of , the same single storey retail strip with a wide four lane profile and heavy overhead wiring. Both streets carry palm trees and independent businesses at the curb rather than chain retail set back in a plaza. Sherman Way's signal spacing and storefront depths differ block to block, so match the overall street width and signage height in a wide shot rather than any one building. Try searching single storey retail strip now.
Santa Fe Avenue in Vernon, California
Santa Fe Avenue in Vernon runs past low slung warehouse buildings with loading docks and wide truck lanes, the same scale as the industrial yards off Saticoy Street near Van Nuys Airport. Vernon's density of working meatpacking plants and metal fabricators among the warehouses makes it a heavily used backdrop for productions needing raw industrial space. Vernon has more rail spurs and heavier truck traffic than Van Nuys, so keep active loading docks and rail crossings out of frame for a quieter match. Try searching industrial warehouse loading dock now.
