Westworld Season 3 has finally arrived, and already we know its futuristic megacities aren’t quite the sleek-steel utopias they purport to be. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to visit—from the safety (and reality) of our couches.
To create the gleaming fortress where host-gone-rogue Dolores plans her revenge, Westworld creators used the insight of Bjarke Ingels, a Danish architect known for his inventive designs. Using his yet-unbuilt concepts to infuse cityscapes with the glitter of digital futurism, the showrunners weaved a seamless web between reality and fiction. Part of their success is owed to the very real buildings the show tapped for filming, in locations including Singapore, Spain, and Los Angeles.
Now’s not a good time to hop on a plane, but we can take a page from Ingels if we want an escape from reality: All you need is a screen. Below, we explore a few stunning film locations that brought season 3 to life—and share where you can see them from afar.
Singapore
Helix Bridge
Inspired by the Spike Jonze movie Her, Westworld’s showrunners traveled to Singapore to film amongst its breathtaking architecture, according to an interview with Variety. One of the obvious spots was the Helix Bridge, a 280-meter-long overpass on the Marina Bay. Designed to look like a DNA strand, the bridge is a perfect fit for Westworld’s genetics- and data-obsessed universe.
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Orchard Road
With an origin dating back to the 1830s, when it was simply a road to farmland, Orchard Road is now a glittering, multicolored retail experience. Flush with glass, flashing colors, and soaring structures, the ION Orchard mall, in particular, exhibits a Westworld “real world” dripping with wealth.
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Parkroyal on Pickering
When Jeffrey Right, who plays Bernard, posted a photo of this lush hotel while filming in the summer of 2019, we knew it had to make an appearance in Westworld. Built as an eco-friendly monument exploding with vegetation, the hotel is meant to illustrate how nature and technology have fused in Westworld’s future reality.
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View full post on InstagramLASALLE College of the Arts
Given this college is the self-proclaimed “leading contemporary arts and design institution” of Asia, you know you’re in for an architect’s dream. Within the gorgeous indoor glass campus, students pursue everything from animation to musical theater. The glossy setting also makes a delightfully modern spot for Dolores to unveil her plan.
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Esplanade Park
One of the oldest parks in Singapore, Esplanade Park was built in 1943. Now a sprawling, verdant epicenter, the park features some of the country's most historic monuments but is nestled close to the Esplanade Forecourt Garden, where dramatic architecture beckons the future.
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Marina One
Remember those mesmerizing ribbon-like structures curling around the outside of Incite, the company responsible for Rehoboam? They're real, and they belong to the ultra-futuristic residential tower Marina One, as part of the building's 'City in a Garden' concept where greenery and concrete mesh.
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ATLAS Bar
For a stunning interior worthy of Engerraund Serac's patronage, Westworld creators turned to Singapore's ATLAS Bar, an art deco-inspired lounge on the ground floor of the Parkview Square building. Serac, the world's richest man and the owner of Rehoboam, brings Maeve beside the soaring bar here in episode 4, "The Mother of Exiles."
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Marina Bay Sands
In one of many beautifully CGI-rendered establishing shots, Westworld gives us a peek at real skylines of Singapore, including a view of the iconic Marina Bay Sands. The resort's three towers are connected by a flat rooftop patio, which means you can literally stroll between buildings.
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Spain
City of Arts and Sciences
One of Spain’s most famous arts and sciences complexes—and, in fact, the largest such complex in all of Europe—is a shoo-in for a Westworld starring role. Built in Valencia and designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, the structure features Europe’s largest aquarium, as well as a science museum, cinema, planetarium, an Instagrammable open-air garden, and more. Of course, this massive institution serves as the home of Delos, the corporate behemoth behind Westworld and its sister parks.
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“The Factory”
A converted cement factory now alive with greenery, Ricardo Bofill’s “La Fábrica” (or “The Factory”) houses his architectural firm. Nestled near Barcelona in a town called Sant Just Desvern, "The Factory" is formed from eight enormous silos and is still considered an “unfinished work,” according to Atlas Obscura. The site serves as the home of a “brain” that connects Westworld’s data-driven universe, Vulture reports.
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Besalú
When Maeve wakes up in Warworld, a park set in Italy during World War II, she plots her escape by fleeing across this Roman fortified bridge in the romantic village of Besalú in northern Catalonia. She returns to the village multiple times throughout the series.
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California
The McArthur
In episode 1, Dolores faces off against Martin Connells, Serac's head of security, which leads to a gunfight steps away from the historic Park Plaza Hotel, now The McArthur, in Los Angeles, located next to McArthur Park.
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Hermosa Beach Pier
If this sparkling spot off the coast of Los Angeles rings a bell, you might recognize its shape from another moment in Hollywood history, when La La Land's Ryan Gosling sings "City of Stars." In Westworld, a CGI-imposed skyline glitters beyond the pier while Caleb learns more of Dolores's plans for destroying Incite in episode 3.
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TAO Los Angeles
In episode 7, we find Musashi/Dolores enjoying a few drinks in Jakarta, only for Charlotte to call him with a warning: Dolores has turned on her own copies. But the scene in which Hanaryo and Clementine arrive to kill him was filmed not in Indonesia but inside the upscale L.A. bar and restaurant TAO.
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Millard House
This 1923 Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece first appeared as Arnold Weber's house in season 2. But the house went on the market between Seasons 2 and 3, so Westworld production designer Howard Cummings told Architectural Digest the team rebuilt the house as a set to use in Season 3.
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