Streaming
The Gossip Girl Revival Was Filmed At Multiple Iconic NYC Locations
You'll notice some hotspots from the original series.
The CW’s original Gossip Girl featured a main cast of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Penn Badgley, Taylor Momsen, and more. But one of the teen drama’s most iconic characters wasn’t a person — it was the show’s setting: New York City. All of Gossip Girl’s romance and drama went down in front of countless luxurious high-society locations in Manhattan, specifically the borough’s elite Upper East Side, where the characters attended Constance Billard School for Girls and St. Jude’s School for Boys. Superfans of the original series may have already tripped to NYC to see its most memorable filming locations, but now that Season 1 of HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot is rolling out, there are more sites to see.
The Gossip Girl revival sees a new group of teens attending Constance Billard, aware of the famous group of students who preceded them. It takes place eight years after the original Gossip Girl website went dark and reimagines its social surveillance through social media rather than an anonymous blog. Starring actors include Emily Alyn Lind (Revenge), Eli Brown (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists), Tavi Gevinson (Scream Queens), and Thomas Doherty (High Fidelity), among others. As you watch all of the fresh drama of HBO Max’s Gossip Girl unfold, take a look at several NYC locations the show’s been filmed at so far.
The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Located in the Upper East Side, right along Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was featured many, many times in the original Gossip Girl as a hangout spot for the crew. Early promos for the HBO Max revival featured the new cast chilling on the steps of the grand building, set to be featured in at least the Season 1 premiere episode, per the streaming service.
The Museum Of The City Of New York
While there are actually many private prep schools in New York City, Constance Billard and St. Jude’s are unfortunately nonexistent. However, the building used to film its exterior shots is real — it’s just not a school. It’s the Museum of the City of New York, located in East Harlem on Fifth Avenue, just over a mile north of The Met. According to the museum’s website, it features over 750,000 pieces of art on display, and adults can buy tickets for $20.
Madison Avenue
Home to many high-end fashion retailers, every New Yorker is familiar with Madison Avenue, which runs from Manhattan’s Madison Square Park all the way up to East Harlem’s 125th street — though only the wealthy ones actually shop there. In a June 2021 post, as reported by My Imperfect Life, Twitter user @Nono_Torres shared photos of some Gossip Girl cast members shooting a scene at what appears to be Ralph Lauren’s 872 Madison Avenue location.
DUMBO, Brooklyn
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Gossip Girl co-creator Josh Schwartz revealed that while the teens attend school in the Upper East Side just like they did in the original, some of them live in Brooklyn in the revival. “Brooklyn’s not the bad place to live. Brooklyn’s probably cooler in the new version than Manhattan, ’cause it is in some places,” he said. “Other than that, [the revival] has the DNA of the original.”
A promotional clip posted by HBO Max sees one of the new characters sneakily meeting up with a lover underneath the Manhattan Bridge, located in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, named as an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.
In the first episode of the season, the teens venture out to a private, members-only event at the Dumbo Club, presumably named after Dumbo House, aka restaurant/hotel chain Soho House’s Brooklyn location. Characters Julien, Zoya, Audrey, Max, and Aki enjoy a night out filled with drama and hookups that abruptly ends when they receive Gossip Girl’s first social media notification of the season.
Park Avenue Armory
Later in Episode 1, Julien walks in a Christopher John Rogers fashion show at the Park Avenue Armory, a historic National Guard armory built in 1880 and located at 643 Park Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Designed in Gothic Revival style by architect Charles Clinton, the 55,000-square-foot venue holds concerts, plays, art showings, and even fashion shows.
Of course, the location sparks drama for the teens of Gossip Girl. Julien excludes Zoya from the fashion show’s after-party and — encouraged by Monet and Luna — frames her for Airdropping a nude photo of Max to the attendees so security will kick her out. God, it’s brutal out here.
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