Where Is The Pitt Filmed?

"The Pitt" is the latest medical drama taking over television, proving it isn't just another underrated medical show. The emergency room of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center covers tough cases, like Fourth of July mishaps and broken bones. Each episode represents an hour of a shift, so it feels like you're following the doctors, nurses, interns, and residents in real time, and part of how it does that is with the set design. While that set and the attendant practical effects look incredibly realistic, some even comparable to the best horror effects, "The Pitt" is actually filmed on multiple sound stages in Burbank, California, not in a real hospital.

Though the series films in California, the exterior shots of the hospital are from a real hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Allegheny General Hospital serves as the exterior for the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. It has also been used for filming a few scenes, including Robby and Dr. Abbott's conversation on the hospital roof in Season 1, totaling just three days of filming for that the first season. 

To accommodate the frenetic nature of filming "The Pitt," production designer Nina Ruscio had to think a bit outside the box so the set would look like an emergency room department while also allowing the camera movement that keeps the episodes feeling continuous. While speaking to Comicon.com, Ruscio discussed how she and the team went about building the sets.

Though she had helped design hospital sets before, the set for "The Pitt" provided a unique challenge in having all of the rooms in the same space, with Ruscio describing it as "the most comprehensive physical emergency department that I have done from scratch." 

"We subtly lead your eye from space to space by the curvature in the floor," Ruscio also said. "I also wanted to create a space that had enough possible motion designed into it so that it felt architecturally limitless — that it had no beginning and no end."

Ruscio was also inspired to include architectural elements from Allegheny General Hospital, though she wanted the set she built "to reveal the years of remodeling" that the building would likely have on the inside. These elements are most noticeable in the waiting room, with the marble columns and floors. While there are plenty of shows like "The Pitt," they can't all boast such a cool set.