Glass office towers over a paved plaza facing Manhattan, and the esplanade where Coneheads' aliens first come ashore.
What Exchange Place looks like
A paved plaza a couple hundred feet across sits at the foot of Montgomery Street, where it meets the Hudson River. Glass office towers rise straight up from the plaza. has a stepped crown in pale stone. , a block inland, is taller and sheathed entirely in glass. A waterfront esplanade runs along the property instead of a street grid, open pavement facing the water, with Manhattan filling the view directly across the river.
PATH trains reach the district through an underground station rebuilt in 1989, its entrance a glass pavilion at street level. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stops on an open platform a short walk away, under a peaked blue canopy, with the Exchange Place name lettered on the platform sign. Harborside, a former Pennsylvania Railroad warehouse of concrete and steel from the late 1920s, stands a block back from the water. Its original floors carry up under newer glass towers added from 2002 on.
The hangs on a building facing directly across the river at Battery Park, its face fifty feet wide. A bronze memorial to the Katyn Forest massacre stands near the water's edge close by. extends out over the river on a former rail pier, part of a paved waterfront walkway that continues along the riverfront.
Shot in Exchange Place
In Coneheads, the alien family climbs out of the Hudson River onto the esplanade here when they first arrive on Earth. Law & Order SVU filmed an episode inside the . Godzilla set up its military headquarters at Essex Street and Hudson Street, the same corner the Goldman Sachs Tower later filled.
Coneheads, 1993
The Conehead family climbs out of the Hudson River onto this stretch of pavement when they first arrive on Earth. The shot holds on the waterline with the Manhattan skyline behind them, the same view from the same spot today. Street View
Law & Order SVU
The PATH station
An episode was filmed inside the Exchange Place PATH station, rebuilt in 1989 with escalators down to the platform level. The turnstile hall near the accessible entrance sits at street level, one flight above the platforms. Street View
Battery Park City's own glass towers stand right over the water on a paved esplanade the same way, blocks from the 1980s through the 2000s with open pavement instead of a street grid. Shooting the substitution here gets the same building scale and open plazas without closing real Manhattan streets. Keep the camera off the water on the western side, since the real Manhattan skyline sits directly across the river and would give the location away in any wide shot toward the water. Try searching glass towers over water now.
Canary Wharf's glass office towers stand over a former dock, cut through by wide paved plazas in the same way office towers here stand over a paved waterfront. Both are financial districts built almost entirely from the 1990s on, with squares between the towers rather than a street grid. A single isolated tower base reads better here than a full skyline, since Canary Wharf's towers cluster closer together and run taller overall. Any shot toward the water needs to keep the real Manhattan skyline out of frame. Try searching glass towers over plazas now.
Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Puerto Madero was built the same way as Harborside here, old dock warehouses reused as offices and lofts, with new glass and steel towers added around them from 2000 on. A promenade runs along the water in place of a street grid, the same shape as the esplanade at Exchange Place. A single tower base or a promenade shot holds the match better than a full skyline, since Puerto Madero's towers run taller and closer together. Spanish signage and different street furniture need dressing out too. Try searching dock warehouses and towers now.
