The Penguin Sets: Vaults, Satin Sheets, & 40 Lbs. of Debris
ADG-winning production designer Kalina Ivanov on the enormous undertaking of creating Gotham.
Welcome to the wild and wonderful era of Emmy Awards: Phase 1, a time before nomination voting when the arbitrary rules governing what is timely are set aside, and we can discuss projects that were released weeks or months earlier and deserve to be top of mind again. The Penguin premiered on HBO September 19, 2024.
Everything you need to know about Oswald Cobb—his taste, his ambition, his conception of elegance—is laid pitilessly bare with one glimpse of his bedding.
“ I insisted on those satin sheets,” The Penguin production designer Kalina Ivanov says. They match perfectly Oz’s apartment, the vault of a former jewelry store in the Diamond District of Gotham, another telling detail courtesy of Ivanov. The apartment feels like a child’s conception of luxury, slightly askew and definitely immature. What could be more indicative of Oz’s somewhat banal sensibilities than a wannabe gangster sleeping in a vault? And star Colin Farrell was deeply involved in the creation of Oz’s home, as well.
“Colin spent an hour with me in a design meeting, in a bona fide, authentic design meeting,” Ivanov says. “Never happens with an actor of this stature, and it was wonderful. I had to explain to him the meaning of the vault in his apartment, that it was a jeweler's vault. You go to repair your jewelry, and they keep it overnight. And he loved that.”
That idea came from Ivanov’s extensive research about what could be found in a Diamond District. “I started looking at jewelry repair shops and lo and behold, one of them had a big vault,” she says. “As a matter of fact, we have the ad for that shop in the apartment. All the history that I give [the characters] is one way or the other portrayed in the set dressing.”
That level of attention led to more than a little stress under the duress of a television shooting schedule, but Ivanov was one of the few creatives who were actually aided by the 2023 strikes. That shutdown allowed more time for the completion of larger sets, including Oz’s base of operations in the trolley depot.
“That [time] was all it took to take the set from OK to really beautiful, to really be what we call a movie set,” Ivanov says. “It was our biggest set. And the extra two weeks were very helpful to the set decorating department, which was able to bring all the detail. They went to a museum and borrowed the trolley cables.”
That set was built in the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, making The Penguin the first project to film there in 15 years. The space and its columns also tied in to what creator Matt Reeves specifically requested: The French Connection.
“You can see how I stayed true to that,” Ivanov says, pointing to the elevated subways and the arches that proliferate throughout the world of the show. “You can't get away from arches!” That extended to the restaurant scene between Oz and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), filmed at Hawksmoor in Manhattan.
“ That's another location that hasn't been seen for 75 years,” Ivanov says. “The cinematographer and director really helped me, because they went really low there to see the arches of the ceiling, because they're so high. We were mindful in who we are dealing with, and when it's rich people, the proportions are much bigger, much taller and much bigger.” That choice, to frame Sofia and Oz both equally looming over the camera, sets up the epic battle between them. Underdogs underestimated by the Falcone family, they’re equally unlikely candidates to take over Gotham’s criminal underworld. And neither of them has any idea yet what a formidable adversary is across the table.
Ivanov and her department also faced a formidable adversary in the sheer scale of what The Penguin demanded. In one whirlwind day, a nightclub set was dressed and then redressed to be a decades-later decayed relic of its former glory.
“Elizabeth Lynn is the scenic in charge, and she is one of the best scenics in New York, and it shows in everything that she does,” Ivanov says. “We're old friends. I use half of the words that I use with somebody else, and her taste is exquisite.” Ivanov also singles out set decorators Rich Devine and Rich Murray for their detail-oriented work. In fact, Rich Murray went so far as to buy a building for the Crown Point set, still littered with 40 pounds of debris from the flood at the end of The Batman.
“Rich Murray came to me and said, ‘Oh, guess what? I purchased a building,’ and I'm like, ‘Congratulations,’” Ivanov says with a laugh. “It was a small facade, and we had an empty lot, and we put his building there and destroyed it. And I just want you to know that that [Crown Point] set froze. We were supposed to shoot it in the fall. Because of the strike, it was winter. The set froze, we had to unfreeze it, but it worked out very well. We used every inch of set that was created. When the director saw that there’s a liquor store, he said, ‘Oh, I can have people looting it!’ And the cast, it was overwhelming when they saw it.”
Wait, where did her team acquire 40 pounds of debris?
“ I swear, I don't know where,” Ivanov says, laughing. “I don't know where.”
Kalina Ivanov earned an Emmy Award and an ADG Award for her production design work on Grey Gardens and an ADG Award for The Penguin. Her other credits include Smash, Lovecraft Country, and Little Miss Sunshine.