Cast iron and brick warehouse blocks run from North Moore Street to Duane Park, with the Ghostbusters firehouse still standing on the corner.
What Tribeca looks like
Cast iron and brick warehouses run five to eight storeys along narrow streets with small block fronts, most of them built in the 1880s with ground floor loading docks still visible under some facades. Arched windows stack through the upper floors on corners like Franklin and Varick, the brickwork running from deep red to pale tan from one block to the next.
The subway entrance at Franklin and Hudson sits under a curved glass and iron canopy, with cafe tables set out on the sidewalk beside it. sits two blocks south at Duane and Hudson Streets, a small triangular green ringed by iron railings and benches. , a narrow cobblestone alley between Duane and Harrison Streets, runs under a cast iron skybridge from 1907 that connects two buildings three storeys up.
Newer towers now stand among the warehouse blocks. The stepped brown brick of rises above its neighbors at Hudson and Thomas Streets, a 1930 telecommunications building with setback upper floors. Glass towers at 56 Leonard Street and 111 Murray Street cut sharp angles into the skyline nearby.
On North Moore Street, the Hook and Ladder Company 8 firehouse keeps its 1903 Beaux-Arts front, built with two vehicle doors that are now one. Its red brick and limestone trim run the same tones as the warehouse blocks around it.
Shot in Tribeca
The Hook and Ladder Company 8 firehouse at 14 North Moore Street played the Ghostbusters headquarters in 1984 and appeared again in Hitch in 2005, as the station where one of Hitch's clients works as a fire captain. Ghostbusters built its interior on a soundstage and at a second, decommissioned Los Angeles firehouse, while Hitch's pole slide scene was shot inside the real building.
Ghostbusters, 1984
The firehouse's own exterior at 14 North Moore Street played Ghostbusters headquarters in the 1984 film and its sequels. The interior and the ladder truck garage were built on a soundstage and at a decommissioned Los Angeles firehouse, so only the North Moore Street front is the real building. Street View
Hitch, 2005
The same Beaux-Arts firehouse front appears again in Hitch, 2005. This time it plays itself, the station where one of Hitch's clients works as a fire captain, using the same real exterior as the Ghostbusters shoot. Street View
Shad Thames doubled for a New York alley in Highlander, 1986. Its brick warehouses and overhead iron walkways held up as downtown with no dressing added, and the cobbled quay gives it the same industrial waterfront scale as Tribeca's own warehouse blocks. The iron walkways that cross overhead belong to Shad Thames alone and give it away in a wide shot. Frame tight on the brick, the cobbles and the loading doors instead. Try searching brick warehouse alley now.
Printers Row in Chicago, Illinois
Printers Row's brick and terracotta warehouses went up between the 1880s and the 1920s for Chicago's printing trade, with the same grouped window bays and loading bays as Tribeca's own blocks. Many were converted into residential lofts starting in the 1980s, the printing era facades kept intact above street level. Printers Row's blocks run wider and lean on brick and terracotta rather than Tribeca's cast iron, so a tight frame on the window bays and cornice line holds the match better than a full block view. Try searching brick printing warehouses lofts now.
West End in Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle's West End is a nearly intact run of bond stores and warehouses from the Gold Boom years of the 1890s to the 1900s. The scale and the loading bays read close to Tribeca, though most of the fronts are limestone rather than cast iron and brick. The limestone is a paler, rougher stone than Tribeca's brick and terracotta, so a heavily graded or black and white pass hides the difference better than a clean color frame. Try searching limestone bond stores warehouses now.
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