All The Luxurious Locations That Billions Was Filmed In
"Billions" is a show that basks in excess and all that the good life can provide. The show's characters are pitted in a fast-paced battle of the wits where intelligence, power, and financial prowess hang in the balance.
It's only fitting, then, that the characters and their struggles would act against a backdrop of some of New York's most luxurious pieces of real estate. From New York City penthouse apartments to mansions in the Hamptons and everywhere in between, the cast of "Billions" creates a compelling narrative based loosely on a number of real life people and events tied in with stock market manipulation, insider trading, and financial investigations of the grandest scale, as noted by Forbes.
The filming locations that make their way into the scenes of "Billions" are awe-inspiring, and yet so many of them are actual locations rather than film sets built specifically to capture some kind of fantasy life. The existence of these types of homes is truly remarkable.
Axe's New York City home can be found in this real-life Tribeca apartment
Damian Lewis' Bobby Axelrod is ambitious and intelligent in "Billions," and the New York City apartment he calls home mirrors his ambition perfectly. Axe lives in an enormous apartment with fantastic views of the surrounding area and an 18-foot ceiling to provide a stunning sense of grandeur and importance to the space. Architectural Digest reports that viewers can be forgiven for assuming that this home was filmed on a set. In reality, the scenes of Axe's city abode were shot at 145 Hudson Street in a building aptly known as The Sky Lofts.
Street Easy reports that this contemporary apartment includes a 7,500-square-foot living space and a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, one-powder room layout while incorporating an immense influx of natural light as a staple feature of the property. The apartment occupies both the top two floors of the building, and was designed by James Carpenter, also the architect of 7 World Trade Center.
The interior makes use of a chef's kitchen and all the most fabulous luxury upgrades that read as a laundry list of a homeowner's wildest dreams. The home was last on the market in 2017 (via Street Easy), listed for $45 million. What's more, the home sold prior to that for $30.5 million in 2009, setting a record for the most expensive sale ever to occur below Columbus Circle in Manhattan (via Curbed NY).
Billionaire's Row in Southampton played host to Axe's Hamptons Mansion
The East Hampton Star reports that the action of "Billions" really kicks off when Axe decides to purchase a sprawling, $83 million Southampton home on Meadow Lane. The purchase provides Paul Giamatti's Chuck Rhoades with an opportunity to dig into the finances of the suspected insider trader.
Just as the New York property made use of a real, luxury penthouse, so too does the Hamptons home, which is filmed in Michael Loeb's 12 bedroom and more than 17,000-square-foot home (via Architectural Digest). The property sits on 7.5 acres (via Curbed Hamptons), and includes a tennis court, zipline, and sprawling landscaping. The overhead view (found at Virtual Globetrotting) reveals a long and beautifully set boardwalk that connects the property with the beach down below.
Dirt reports that Loeb purchased the property in 2013, and The East Hampton Star relays a valuation of around $21 million for the actual property (in contrast with the inflated figure that accompanies the hyperbole and excess of the "Billions" storyline).
Salutation, a private island home with immense history, pulls double duty
Salutation, the largest home built on Salutation Island (via Architectural Digest), stands in as the home of the Pierce family on "Billions," as well as acting as the façade for Axe's country estate. The Pierces are modeled after an aggregation of Ted Turner, some of the United States' most storied newspaper owners in history, and the Bancrofts while presiding over a media empire that was based loosely on the fiscal and viewership successes of CNN (via Slate). To that end, a home of this stature is only fitting.
Architectural Digest reports that the private island plays host to six homes, and this particular mammoth installation was built by Junius Spencer Morgan III (the grandson of J.P. Morgan) in 1919. Town & Country recounts that the entire island was on sale (in late 2017) for $125 million. To steep the landscape in even more history, one of its residences hosted Jackie Kennedy during the summer after John F. Kennedy was assassinated (via Curbed Hamptons).
Salutation has served as a set for filming on a number of occasions: It provided Linus Larrabee's mansion in Sabrina (1995), and was featured in NBC's "Deception" in 2013 (via House Histree).