Rebuilding the Coven witches' academy set for American Horror Story season 13

The thirteenth season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series pulls threads from earlier instalments together. Most of the action plays out in a New York penthouse that doubles as the devil's lair. Against it, production designer Anu Schwartz set one returning favourite: Miss Robichaux's Academy, the pale, opalescent home of the witches from season three, Coven. Putting the two side by side, he says, gives the season a ready visual shorthand for good versus evil.

The trouble was that nothing survived. The original stage sets had long been torn down, and the paint chips, plans and proportions were gone with them. Schwartz worked from a packet of photos sent by Coven's designer, Mark Worthington, zooming in frame by frame. He eventually found the original plans in a Disney production archive, which led him to the firm that made the fireplaces and ceiling medallions, so both could be remade exactly.

The piano came from Facebook Marketplace, sold on behalf of a 91-year-old owner. The walls are a warm white and the trim a cooler grey-white, chosen after camera tests. The whole set went up at Broadway Stages in Brooklyn in roughly six weeks.

Look closely at the staircase: the 13th spindle is upside down. A good read for anyone curious about how screen interiors get made.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 8 October 2026. Read the original

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