Daniel LaRusso's apartment building, the South Seas at 19223 Saticoy St. in Reseda. After driving around the Valley for a couple of days, director John G. Avildsen and location manager Richard Davis Jr. found the perfect building for Daniel and his mom. "It was the exterior feel [Avildsen] was after; sort of the bleakness," Davis says.
"The owner of the building couldn’t believe we actually wanted to make a movie there," Davis says of the South Seas.
The half-full pool of green water is an image many of the cast members and filmmakers recalled about the South Seas.
"I wanted a pool in the center so I could have dirty water in it and half full with the same swan that I used in Save the Tiger," Avildsen says, referring to his 1973 film starring Jack Lemmon, which also featured a pool with an inflatable swan.
Only a few scenes in the film were done on a soundstage, the interior apartment scenes included.
The apartment set was made to look like the real unit, pictured here.
Daniel goes to find the maintenance man's workshop.
This carport at the South Seas was transformed into Miyagi's workshop.
The South Seas apartment building near the corner of Saticoy Street and Tampa Avenue in Reseda.
