Every Real Location Behind ‘Off Campus’ — How Vancouver Became Briar University

Prime Video’s ‘Off Campus’ has taken the romance genre by storm since its eight-episode debut on May 13, 2026, and while fans are already deep in their feelings about Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham, there is a whole other obsession quietly taking over social media. The show’s filming locations have become a travel bucket list in their own right, with viewers desperate to figure out exactly which real-world corners of Canada were transformed into the fictional Briar University.

The answer is rooted almost entirely in British Columbia, and it is a far more layered production geography than most people realize. The 2026 adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s bestselling book series turned British Columbia into the unofficial capital of attractive university drama. Here is everything you need to know about where ‘Off Campus’ was actually filmed.

The University of British Columbia as Briar University

The centerpiece of the entire production is, without question, the University of British Columbia. The campus spans 402 hectares, providing the production team with everything needed to bring Elle Kennedy’s books to life, with modern architecture and scenic coastal views appearing throughout the show in classroom scenes, student gatherings, and emotional conversations between characters.

Students spotted production outside the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, which is where Garrett first asks Hannah to tutor him in Episode 1, and fans were quick to notice Briar U branding and student fair banners posted around campus in places like the Martha Piper Plaza.

The UBC Main Library was also part of the filming footprint, and UBC’s engineering fraternity house, Sigma Phi Delta, stood in as the frat for Garrett, Logan, Tucker, Dean, and Justin. It is a craftsman-style residence built in 1915, located in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood, which gave the show a sense of lived-in collegiate history that a purpose-built set simply could not replicate.

The University of British Columbia must be used to production by now, because ‘Off Campus‘ is not the only series to film there. After the hockey boys packed up, ‘Percy Jackson’ moved in to film Season 3 around October 2025, and the campus has also appeared in productions like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, ‘Riverdale’, and ‘Smallville’.

The Hockey Arena Filming Locations That Made Briar U Feel Real

No campus romance built around elite ice hockey could survive without genuinely convincing rink sequences, and ‘Off Campus’ delivered on that front by using real athletic venues rather than relying on studio builds.

The Briar University Hawks ice hockey arena is the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. The choice to use an active, working arena gave the hockey scenes a visceral authenticity that matches the energy fans already imagined while reading Kennedy’s novels.

The ice rink in the second episode, ‘The Practice’, is the Father David Bauer Arena, a smaller community rink that is also part of the Thunderbird Sports Centre complex at UBC. The production’s decision to use two distinct rinks within the same facility added visual variety to the hockey sequences without pulling the crew across town.

The cast and crew were also spotted shooting at Pacific Coliseum within Hastings Park at 100 North Renfrew Street, also referred to as The Coliseum or the Rink on Renfrew, a popular landmark that has served as the venue for several real ice hockey matches over the years.

Vancouver’s Real Streets and Off-Campus Social Life

Away from the university grounds, the production leaned into Vancouver’s urban character to fill out the social world of Briar University’s students, and those choices paid off in a big way visually.

The Heatley, the East Vancouver bar that doubles as Malone’s, sees most of the friendships, flirtations, and emotional breakdowns unraveling, while the DOUGLAS, Autograph Collection, offers a sleek backdrop for the more polished and dramatic moments in the show. The contrast between the two venues essentially mirrors the show’s own emotional range.

The Douglas Hotel was used as Dean’s apartment in New York City where he and Allie hooked up on Thanksgiving in Episode 5, with the actual suite where they filmed everything being called The Den, bookable for around 3,578 dollars a night. That is one way to relive the drama if viewers happen to have the budget for it.

For the purpose of filming the sports-themed series, the crew also took a 40-minute drive from downtown Vancouver to Coquitlam, where filming was conducted at Riverview Hospital at 2601 Lougheed Highway. Some exterior campus scenes, including the Briar U block party sequence, were filmed at the former Riverview Hospital, a screen favourite used in countless productions from ‘Virgin River’ to the 2003 Christmas classic ‘Elf’.

The Working Title and the Road to Season 2

The production’s path to becoming ‘Off Campus’ was not without its behind-the-scenes quirks, and the timeline of how it all came together adds some useful context to the finished product fans are now watching.

Production began on June 9, 2025 in Vancouver, British Columbia under the working title ‘Lillian Way’, and filming concluded on September 24, 2025, ahead of the previously targeted October 2 wrap date. The four-month schedule gave the crew room to move fluidly across multiple locations rather than anchoring everything to a single lot.

Cast members playing the hockey leads also posted pictures of their trailer doors labeled ‘The Garrett Graham’, ‘Daddy Dean’, ‘Papa John (Logan)’, and ‘Chef Tucker’, giving fans a playful glimpse behind the curtain during production. Those small moments helped build anticipation across social media long before the show premiered.

With Season 2 of ‘Off Campus’ set to start filming in June, it is likely fans will get to see more of UBC very soon. On February 12, 2026, the series was renewed for a second season ahead of the Season 1 premiere, signalling that Amazon MGM Studios is fully committed to bringing the rest of Elle Kennedy’s Briar universe to the screen.

Whether you are planning a pilgrimage to UBC or simply watching every scene with new eyes now that you know where it was all shot, we want to hear from you — which ‘Off Campus’ filming location are you most desperate to visit in person, and do you think Vancouver captures the spirit of Briar University the way you imagined it while reading the books?