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A young woman in a dark knitted jumper, smiling, with forest behind her
kris krüg · CC BY-SA 2.0
A young woman in a dark knitted jumper, smiling, with forest behind her
kris krüg · CC BY-SA 2.0

Battlestar Galactica

Two portraits. One of them is a copy. Tap the one you think it is.

Sci Fi, 2003–2009. A show about machines that pass for people, made in a city that passed for another world. Run the assay

Baltar’s detector

The assay.

In Bastille Day Adama asks Gaius Baltar about his Cylon detector, and Baltar says he needs a nuclear warhead to finish it. Here the samples are Caprica’s streets and halls. Load one, run it, and read what it really is.

About the detector
A long concrete colonnade round a lawn courtyard
RestfulC401 (WinterforceMedia) · CC0

Sample 01 Riverwalk Market

On screen: A market in Caprica City, miniseries

Sample loaded. Ready.

Tested 0 of 6. Every result so far: Vancouver.

3500 Cornett Road · East Vancouver

Ten stages.

The ship never left a studio lot on the Vancouver–Burnaby line. By 2007 the series filled ten of its stages, about 30% of the studio’s space, and shot from April to September.

A multi-lane road with trees and street lights
Boundary Road northbound near Highway 1, July 2018: the city line beside Vancouver Film Studios, which sits just off it. formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0

3500 Cornett Road, off Boundary Road and Grandview Highway, Vancouver

Vancouver Film Studios

The series’ nerve centre was Vancouver Film Studios, where it took 10 stages, about 30% of the studio’s space, with its production offices close by.

Tricia Helfer said the show generally shot from April to September.

David Eick said tax credits and the exchange rate first drew the show to British Columbia; Los Angeles was a three-hour flight away and in the same time zone.

On a press tour in 2007 a visitor walked the hangar set among Viper and Raptor props, and was shown walls that came out so rooms could be rearranged into other spaces.

The lot has 12 purpose-built sound stages of 1,160 to 1,950 square metres.

A working studio lot, closed to visitors. The streets round it are public.

Cleared sources

Downtown

Caprica City.

Three buildings within a short walk: the library, a red-roofed tower on Victory Square, and a 1927 vaudeville house that became the Opera House. The library and the Orpheum are 0.3 km (0.2 miles) apart.

  1. A curved colonnaded library building like a stone amphitheatre
    The Central Library at 350 West Georgia Street, in November 2011. Vince.varona · CC BY-SA 3.0

    350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

    Vancouver Public Library, Central Library

    In Bastille Day it appears for a moment as Helo and Sharon are on the run on Caprica, leaving by its northern exit. The building sits on a tight lot, so the crew used a wide lens.

    It stood in for Caprica City in several episodes, and returned in the spin-off Caprica for the first meeting of Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama.

    In the same episode Adama asks Baltar about his Cylon detector, and Baltar says he needs a nuclear warhead to complete it.

    The Central Library opened on 26 May 1995 and cost CAD $106.8 million.

    A public library; walk in during opening hours.

    Cleared sources
  2. A tall early-1900s office building with a red roof
    The Dominion Building on West Hastings Street, with its red mansard roof, in September 2023. Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0

    207 West Hastings Street at Victory Square, Vancouver

    The Dominion Building

    In Litmus, Cylon-occupied Caprica was filmed from a rooftop across the street to the east; the red roof gives it away, with the blue BC Hydro building behind.

    A shot of occupied Caprica in Litmus showed a ScotiaBank building, which is how one fan first worked out that the series was made in Vancouver.

    The building and Victory Square were filmed for scenes in an abandoned city.

    It was Vancouver’s first steel-framed high-rise, and is a Class A heritage building.

    Offices; see it from Victory Square and West Hastings Street.

    Cleared sources
  3. An ornate gilded theatre auditorium facing the stage
    The auditorium and stage of the Orpheum, Smithe Street, in February 2011. MichaelThoeny · CC BY-SA 3.0

    601 Smithe Street, Vancouver

    The Orpheum

    The last scenes of the first season, Kobol’s Last Gleaming, were filmed in its lobby and on its stage, with a wide lens to make them grander.

    The series dressed the theatre as a heavenly opera house.

    The finale’s chase follows the Opera House vision shared by Athena, Roslin and Caprica Six.

    It opened in November 1927, is the home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1979.

    A working concert hall; buy a ticket to see the lobby and auditorium.

    Cleared sources
Rosewood Hotels

Rosewood Hotel Georgia

Downtown Vancouver

A heritage hotel at 801 West Georgia Street, on the same street as the Central Library and a few blocks from the Orpheum.

Check availability

Colonial Day · season 1

The Quorum of Twelve met in a concert hall lobby, with its name under a painted sheet.

Two campuses carried most of Caprica and the fleet. The Chan Centre at UBC became Cloud Nine; the Brutalist quadrangle on Burnaby Mountain, 25 km (15 miles) away, became a market on the morning of the attack.

A cylindrical modern concert hall among trees
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, beside the rose garden, in July 2013. Xicotencatl · CC BY-SA 3.0

6265 Crescent Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Chan Centre and the UBC Rose Garden

In Colonial Day the rose garden beside the Chan Centre appears; the Canadian flag was taken down but the pole is still in shot, and dome elements were added afterwards.

The indoor scenes were filmed in the Chan Centre’s main lobby. The building’s name was covered with a painted sheet, but the bottoms of the letters are still faintly visible.

On screen it is a building on the luxury ship Cloud Nine, where the Quorum of Twelve meets.

In the episode the Quorum sits again and Gaius Baltar is elected vice president.

Helo first sees two Number Sixes near the Koerner Library, a short walk away.

The rose garden and the campus are open to walk round; the Chan Centre is a working concert hall.

Cleared sources
A long concrete colonnade round a lawn courtyard
The courtyard of the Academic Quadrangle at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, in 2012. RestfulC401 (WinterforceMedia) · CC0

Academic Quadrangle, Burnaby Mountain campus, Burnaby

Simon Fraser University

In the miniseries the Academic Quadrangle is labelled Riverwalk Market, Caprica City: a few portable stalls were brought in and the skyline was altered afterwards.

Baltar gloats to Number Six in the library next door, and the scene walks over into the quadrangle.

In the first-season finale Starbuck lands the captured Cylon fighter at the West Mall Centre, dressed with debris.

Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey won the competition to design the campus, which opened on 9 September 1965.

SFU lists Battlestar Galactica among the productions filmed on its campuses.

An open campus on top of Burnaby Mountain; walk in.

Cleared sources
Tropical plants under a lattice dome
Inside the Bloedel Conservatory dome, Queen Elizabeth Park, in December 2011. Guilhem Vellut · CC BY 2.0

4600 Cambie Street, top of Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Bloedel Conservatory

It appears in the miniseries. The only set piece brought in was the bench the little girl sits on; the roof of the dome was altered afterwards into a large window onto space.

The dome opened in 1969 and holds about 500 species of plants and more than 200 birds.

Inside are macaws, an African parrot, parakeets and cockatoos.

Open to the public with an admission ticket, bought online or at the desk. The park round it is free.

Cleared sources
VanDusen Botanical Garden

Bloedel Conservatory

Vancouver

The dome at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, 4600 Cambie Street, with over 500 exotic plants and flowers and its birds. Tickets online or at the admission desk.

Plan a visit

2005–2009

Who made it.

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick made it; Edward James Olmos played Adama, Mary McDonnell President Roslin. Here they are as they were during the run, and two of the cast on location in the woods north of the city.

Cleared sources
  • A grey-haired man with a moustache smiling
    Edward James Olmos, Admiral Adama, at the Guadalajara film festival, March 2008, during the fourth season. guadalajaracinemafest · CC BY 2.0
    Edward James Olmos
  • A woman with shoulder-length reddish hair speaking on a panel
    Mary McDonnell, President Laura Roslin, on the Battlestar Galactica panel at San Diego Comic-Con, 28 July 2007. Ken Conley · CC BY-SA 2.0
    Mary McDonnell
  • A dark-haired man and a blonde woman side by side at a convention
    James Callis, Gaius Baltar, and Tricia Helfer, Number Six, at New York Comic Con, February 2007. Jeffrey O. Gustafson · CC BY-SA 3.0
    James Callis and Tricia Helfer
  • A man with short brown hair smiling
    Jamie Bamber, Lee “Apollo” Adama, in September 2006, as the third season began. Chad Forbes · CC BY 2.0
    Jamie Bamber
  • A young man photographed outdoors with forest behind him
    Tahmoh Penikett, who played Karl “Helo” Agathon, on the same Lynn Canyon shoot, 8 June 2005. kris krüg · CC BY-SA 2.0
    Tahmoh Penikett
  • A man in glasses speaking into a microphone
    Ronald D. Moore, who developed the series and ran it, at the Comic-Con panel for The Plan and Caprica, San Diego, 24 July 2009. Kristin Dos Santos · CC BY-SA 2.0
    Ronald D. Moore
A narrow footbridge over a creek in a rainforest canyon
The Pipeline Bridge over Lynn Creek in Lynn Canyon Park, North Vancouver, in February 2016. Jeff Hitchcock · CC BY 2.0

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, Lynn Valley, North Vancouver

Lynn Canyon Park

On 7 June 2005 a photographer walking in the Lynn Valley canyon came across the cast and crew at work, and photographed Grace Park.

The next morning, 8 June 2005, he photographed Tahmoh Penikett on the same shoot.

The park opened in 1912. Its suspension bridge was finished in 1911 and is free to cross.

A free municipal park with trails; the suspension bridge is free to cross.

Cleared sources
  1. 8 Dec 2003The miniseries airs on Sci Fi
  2. 18 Oct 2004Season one starts, first on Sky1 in the UK
  3. April 2006Season three begins shooting in Vancouver
  4. 17 Mar 2009An evening at the United Nations
  5. 20 Mar 2009The finale, Daybreak
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North Vancouver

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March 2009

Earth, and the UN.

The last month ended far from the stages: the finale partly shot in the dry country round Kamloops, and, three days before it aired, the cast at the United Nations, 3,900 km (2,400 miles) from the studio.

Dry hills and a river valley at sunset
Kamloops and the hills round it at sunset, from Rose Hill, July 2022. Murray Foubister · CC BY-SA 2.0

Kamloops, British Columbia

The Kamloops area

The finale, Daybreak, was partly shot round Kamloops. It aired on 13 and 20 March 2009.

Ronald D. Moore makes a short cameo in its epilogue.

Over three seasons, places from downtown Vancouver to the Okanagan Valley stood in for a desert and for the jungle of New Caprica.

No site is named for the shoot, so it is not on the map.

Cleared sources
A large council chamber with curved desks and an open ceiling
The Economic and Social Council chamber at United Nations Headquarters, New York, in November 2014. MusikAnimal · CC BY-SA 4.0

First Avenue at 46th Street, Turtle Bay, Manhattan, New York

United Nations Headquarters

On Tuesday 17 March 2009, three days before the finale, about 500 people filled a UN chamber for a Battlestar Galactica evening, among them a hundred New York high-school students.

Whoopi Goldberg moderated. Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick sat with UN representatives.

Eick said the writers set out to raise questions about torture, nuclear war and religion in politics rather than answer them.

Visitors register beforehand and check in at 46th Street and First Avenue.

Guided tours by booking; register first, and check in at 46th Street and First Avenue.

Cleared sources
United Nations Visitor Centre

United Nations guided tour

New York

Guided tours of UN Headquarters, booked online. Register beforehand and check in at 46th Street and First Avenue, New York. The office is open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Book a tour

Go there.

Showing each place by its real name.

Where it is now

9 places you can visit: 3 downtown, 2 in East Vancouver and Burnaby, 3 on the West Side and the North Shore, and 1 in New York. The Kamloops shoot has no named site, so it is listed here and left off the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public library; walk in during opening hours.

  • Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Offices; see it from Victory Square and West Hastings Street.

  • Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working concert hall; buy a ticket to see the lobby and auditorium.

  1. A curved colonnaded library building like a stone amphitheatre
    The Central Library at 350 West Georgia Street, in November 2011. Vince.varona · CC BY-SA 3.0

    350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

    Vancouver Public Library, Central Library

    In Bastille Day it appears for a moment as Helo and Sharon are on the run on Caprica, leaving by its northern exit. The building sits on a tight lot, so the crew used a wide lens.

    A public library; walk in during opening hours.

    Cleared sources
  2. A tall early-1900s office building with a red roof
    The Dominion Building on West Hastings Street, with its red mansard roof, in September 2023. Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0

    207 West Hastings Street at Victory Square, Vancouver

    The Dominion Building

    In Litmus, Cylon-occupied Caprica was filmed from a rooftop across the street to the east; the red roof gives it away, with the blue BC Hydro building behind.

    Offices; see it from Victory Square and West Hastings Street.

    Cleared sources
  3. An ornate gilded theatre auditorium facing the stage
    The auditorium and stage of the Orpheum, Smithe Street, in February 2011. MichaelThoeny · CC BY-SA 3.0

    601 Smithe Street, Vancouver

    The Orpheum

    The last scenes of the first season, Kobol’s Last Gleaming, were filmed in its lobby and on its stage, with a wide lens to make them grander.

    A working concert hall; buy a ticket to see the lobby and auditorium.

    Cleared sources
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Vancouver film location tours

Vancouver

Live marketplace results for film and TV location tours of Vancouver. None is built round the show; check each route for downtown and Gastown.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

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Stay

On West Georgia Street.

A heritage hotel on the library’s street, a few blocks from the Orpheum.

Rosewood Hotels

Rosewood Hotel Georgia

Downtown Vancouver

A heritage hotel at 801 West Georgia Street, on the same street as the Central Library and a few blocks from the Orpheum.

Check availability

Go there

A tour of the UN, and the dome.

The United Nations by booking, the Bloedel Conservatory, and tours of Vancouver’s film locations and the North Shore.

United Nations Visitor Centre

United Nations guided tour

New York

Guided tours of UN Headquarters, booked online. Register beforehand and check in at 46th Street and First Avenue, New York. The office is open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Book a tour
VanDusen Botanical Garden

Bloedel Conservatory

Vancouver

The dome at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, 4600 Cambie Street, with over 500 exotic plants and flowers and its birds. Tickets online or at the admission desk.

Plan a visit
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Vancouver film location tours

Vancouver

Live marketplace results for film and TV location tours of Vancouver. None is built round the show; check each route for downtown and Gastown.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
Viator · Ad / affiliate

North Shore and Lynn Canyon tours

North Vancouver

Live marketplace results for tours of Vancouver’s North Shore. Check each itinerary for Lynn Canyon.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

A night at the Opera House.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Everyone who made it.

The oral history of the show.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

So Say We All

Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman · Tor Books

The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica (Tor Books, 2018).

Find the book

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The full file

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

10 of 10 places · 10 of 10 Moments

  • Vancouver Film Studios

    3500 Cornett Road, off Boundary Road and Grandview Highway, Vancouver

    • Ten stages

      The ship, its hangar and its rooms are built across ten stages in East Vancouver.

  • Simon Fraser University

    Academic Quadrangle, Burnaby Mountain campus, Burnaby

    • Riverwalk Market, Caprica City

      A Brutalist campus quadrangle becomes a market in Caprica City on the morning of the attack.

  • Bloedel Conservatory

    4600 Cambie Street, top of Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

    • A bench under the dome

      A conservatory dome, roofed afterwards with a window onto space.

  • Vancouver Public Library, Central Library

    350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

    • On the run in Caprica City

      Helo and Sharon cross Caprica City past the library’s northern exit.

  • The Dominion Building

    207 West Hastings Street at Victory Square, Vancouver

    • Occupied Caprica

      Occupied Caprica, filmed from a roof across from a red-roofed tower.

  • Chan Centre and the UBC Rose Garden

    6265 Crescent Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

    • The Quorum on Cloud Nine

      A concert hall lobby becomes the meeting place of the Quorum of Twelve.

  • The Orpheum

    601 Smithe Street, Vancouver

    • The Opera House

      A 1927 vaudeville house becomes the Opera House of the visions.

  • Lynn Canyon Park

    Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, Lynn Valley, North Vancouver

    • Two days in Lynn Canyon

      A walker comes across the shoot and photographs two of the cast.

  • The Kamloops area

    Kamloops, British Columbia

    • Daybreak

      The finale is partly shot in the dry country round Kamloops.

  • United Nations Headquarters

    First Avenue at 46th Street, Turtle Bay, Manhattan, New York

    • An evening at the UN

      The cast and producers talk about the show at the United Nations.

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