Glass office towers and hotels on filled land, and the convention center 21 used as an underground casino.
What Seaport District looks like
Seaport Boulevard and the streets around it fan out rather than following a plain grid, wide and mostly straight over filled land. Glass office towers, hotels and condominium high rises line them. None rise above 275 feet, which keeps most under twenty storeys.
The cantilevers a glass box out over the water at Fan Pier, with a wide outdoor stair running down to the harbor's edge. Nearby, the John Joseph Moakley federal courthouse curves in brick and glass, its rotunda domed and facing the water.
A red brick warehouse stands on A Street, five storeys with a rooftop chimney and stone trimmed corners. Glass office towers rise directly behind it on the same block.
The dates from 1910 to 1912, steel and concrete trimmed in terra cotta. Its two long buildings hold forty four storefronts and still operate as a working fish market a few blocks east.
Silver Line buses run down the center of Seaport Boulevard between the towers, with no elevated structure overhead. The takes up several blocks near Summer Street, a service road and a single freight rail track running along its eastern side.
Shot in Seaport District
For 21, the production turned an empty exhibition hall at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center into an underground casino. Broken slot machines bought cheap and rows of card tables filled the space for the scene.
21, 2008
The underground casino set
Played an underground casino, present day
The production filled an empty hall at the convention center with card tables and rows of secondhand slot machines, set up as an underground casino. It is where the film's card counter has his first outing at the tables, played by Jim Sturgess. Street View
What Seaport District can double for
Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia
Coal Harbour rises in glass condo and office towers straight off a marina, with a continuous waterfront path running in front of them, much like the harborwalk along Fan Pier. Vancouver's mountains fill most wide shots along the water, which the flat harbor horizon here does not have to work around. Try searching glass towers on a marina now.
East Village in San Diego, California
San Diego's own bayside convention center sits a few blocks from new glass hotel and office towers on filled land, the same pairing of a large exhibition hall and corporate glass a short walk from open water. Palm trees and year round green lawns along the Embarcadero are the tell in a wide shot. Try searching bayside convention center towers now.
Barangaroo in Sydney, New South Wales
A former container port rebuilt within the last two decades into a headquarters district of glass towers on a harbor promenade, the same fast redevelopment story as the Seaport. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House sit in view from most of the promenade and would need to be framed out. Try searching harbor promenade glass towers now.
