The 416-room, 10-story Ritz-Carlton, San Juan originally opened its doors in December 1997, thereby setting “a new standard of quality” for the region’s tourism industry, according to a case study done in 1999. Offering the ultimate in opulence and class, the five-star hotel was designed by Miami-based Nichols Brosch Sandoval & Associates (now Nichols Architects), with interiors fashioned by Hirsch-Bedner Associates and exteriors completed by the EDSA urban design firm.

Situated on eight pristine acres overlooking the Atlantic, the upscale lodging featured five restaurants, including a French steakhouse and an Italian ristorante, a casino (the largest in Puerto Rico), a fitness center, 30,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a 12,000-square-foot full-service spa, two tennis courts, a pool and a two-mile private stretch of Isla Verde Beach. Guests lucky enough to stay on the premises could avail themselves of such daily luxuries as 24-hour room service, poolside and beachside dining service and twice-daily housekeeping with nightly turndown.

According to the book “The Secret Caribbean,” during its heyday, the property became “a protective enclave, an oasis unto itself,” attracting “business moguls, supermodels, musicians, film and TV stars.” That all changed on September 20, 2017, when Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico, devastating countless homes, buildings and hotels in the area, including The Ritz. It has been closed ever since. Though a re-opening has been in the works for some time, the Covid-19 pandemic and insurance issues have delayed the process, leaving the hotel to sit vacant and in limbo. While a sad state of affairs for the once-celebrated lodging, the extended closure did provide an extraordinary opportunity for “The Resort’s” production designer Bret August Tanzer to take over the property in its entirety and completely reimagine it as the Oceana Vista.

Of the painstaking and lofty design process, Tanzer tells Dirt, “I was given a huge sandbox to play in creatively by Andy, the producers and the studio. They put a lot of trust in me, and I took some big swings. Luckily the story and characters are pretty eccentric as well, so it all flows pretty seamlessly.” Indeed, as the dynamic timeline flips, flops and shifts between 2007 and the present day, much of the narrative unfolds via the fantastical set design.

For the shoot, Tanzer and his team completely overhauled the hotel from top to bottom, inside and out, not once but twice, so as to showcase the property in both its pre- and post-hurricane states. He explains, “We built the fully functional 2007 Oceana interiors inside of the Ritz (as well as the exteriors) and then had to change it all over to the ravaged 2022 version in less than two weeks while the shooting crew left to do some location work.”

All in all, work at the hotel took an incredible six months to complete, with the production team revamping every nook, cranny and ceiling beam. Tanzer details, “Nothing in the Ritz was filmed as-is. Even the exterior greens/plants and landscaping were all created and installed by us.” The blue tiled roofs of the outbuildings and beachside bar were also covered over with thatching, giving the place a far more tropical, 2007-ish feel.

Inside, Tanzer repainted the walls and ceilings in bright colors and patterns, displayed Oceana Vista signage throughout and covered the various common spaces with Christmas décor since a large portion of the story takes place during the holidays. He details, “We used the bones of the existing lobby and hallways in the Ritz, but they were heavily altered to represent our resort. The existing interior was a sea of very benign taupes and creams. Our palette was much more eccentric.”

Set decorator Jenn McLaren was tasked with adding to that eccentricity by outfitting the spaces with unique finds, most of which were custom-built for the shoot or refashioned to work with the Oceana’s overall aesthetic. 

Though The Ritz, in its pre-hurricane state, was far more subdued than its television counterpart, its general layout remains recognizable in images posted on the official website.

For the two rooms occupied by Sam Lawford (Skyler Gisondo) and Violet Thompson (Nina Bloomgarden), the missing college students at the center of the 2007 storyline, Tanzer and McLaren repurposed actual Ritz suites saturating them with tropical colors, wicker furnishings and decidedly-retro seashell-shaped headboards.

But, sadly, you won’t find the moodily whimsical penthouse inhabited by the Oceana Vista’s increasingly eccentric, memory-leaking owner Alex (Ben Sinclair) anywhere on the premises in real life. That sprawling space was a massive, multi-room set constructed by Tanzer and his team inside three of the hotel’s adjoining banquet spaces.

The singular gold chairs that outfit the penthouse, which Alex and his protégé, head of security Baltasar Frías (Luis Gerardo Méndez), make use of during their initial meeting in episode four, “A History of Forgetting,” were custom designs that McClaren unconventionally fashioned using molds of her own hands!

Highly stylistic, the Oceana Vista sizzles onscreen – and even impressed the seasoned actors who traipsed through its halls. As Milioti told Shondaland, “To date, it’s one of the coolest sets I have ever been on. The whole thing, you walk through it, every room. It’s all connected. As a set, it was all very lifelike and felt like it was entirely destroyed — old mattresses everywhere, fake dead iguanas, fake mold, smashed Christmas ornaments. It was incredible in terms of production design.”

“The Resort” is not the only production to make use of The Ritz-Carlton, San Juan recently. Marvel’s upcoming “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also did some filming on the premises earlier this year. So when the hotel does finally reopen its doors to visitors, location aficionados will likely be lining up to check in and live out all of their big and small screen dreams!