One block of Victorian brick storefronts with cast iron columns, cornices and string lights overhead.
What Larimer Square looks like
Larimer Street runs one block between 14th and 15th Streets, lined on both sides with red brick and cut stone Victorian storefronts two to four storeys tall. Cast iron columns frame the ground floor display windows. Strings of lights run between the buildings overhead, and state flags hang at intervals down the block. Planters and outdoor tables fill much of the roadway, and traffic crosses only at the signals on either end.
The stands at 1426 Larimer. Its front is two storeys of simulated cut stone, the oldest on the block, dating from 1873.
The sits on the corner at 15th Street. It rises four storeys in cut granite, with cast iron structural columns exposed where the stone facing stops.
sits midblock. Its mansard roof is the only one on Larimer Street, set over a cast iron ground floor with acanthus leaf columns.
On the south side, eight storefronts sit back behind a brick arcade. Striped awnings and tall display windows run along it, with tables set out most afternoons. Modern glass office towers rise a few blocks beyond the block's own rooflines, visible over the cornices in a wide shot. The brick paving, the planters and the lights overhead continue unbroken from one end of the block to the other, tying the row together as a single run of buildings.
Shot in Larimer Square
Bravo filmed the elimination round of Top Chef's fifteenth season premiere on Larimer Street itself, turning the block into the course for its Larimer Street Challenge. The production crew worked from Larimer Social, an event space partway down the row, while cameras moved up and down the sidewalk.
Top Chef, 2017 (season 15)
Larimer Street
Ninety Bravo staff flown in for the premiere worked the block alongside two hundred local extras. The crew staged out of Larimer Social partway down the row while cameras covered the Larimer Street Challenge up and down the sidewalk. Street View
What Larimer Square can double for
Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square rebuilt in brick and stone after the 1889 fire. Buildings like the Pioneer Building mix heavy Romanesque masonry with cast iron storefronts at street level, the same combination that runs along Larimer Street's own ground floors. The stone is heavier and the window arches rounder than Larimer Street's flatter Victorian fronts, so wider shots give away a different city unless the frame stays tight on the storefronts and columns. Try searching cast iron storefronts now.
Park Street in Butte, Montana
Park Street in Uptown Butte keeps blocks of brick Victorian commercial fronts from the same mining boom years as Larimer Street, with cast iron columns and cornices repeating down the row of storefronts. Butte's mountain skyline and the headframes above the district give the location away in anything wider than a street level frame, so keep the camera low and close to the storefronts. Try searching brick Victorian storefronts now.
Main Street in Park City, Utah
Main Street rebuilt in brick and stone after an 1898 fire. Its two part commercial blocks run about the same length as Larimer Street's own row, with similar storefront windows at ground level. The street's steep grade and ski town signage would need dressing out, and Park City's buildings run lower overall than Larimer Street's taller fronts. Try searching two part commercial blocks now.
