I know the movie was set in the soon-to-be 2019 of LA (where’s my flying car?) but anyone take a guess where around LA? The building is to be ginormous and was set farther out than inside LA.
FYI: I’m trying to come up with a fictional mailing address that’s reasonably accurate.
I would say somewhere a bit east of downtown, an area more industrial. My first instinct would be to put it somewhere like City Of Industry, which is about a half hour drive east of downtown. I’d buy Downey or South Gate as well, two other industrial areas a bit closer by, a little south of downtown.
You’ll find Tyrell Corp nestled right between Cyberdyne Systems and Weyland-Yutani.
Looking each of them up, City of Industry is the logical one, for all three companies
They took over C. F. Braun’s old place
About the C F Braun & Co. Alumni Group
Since the company had been sold so many times, having Tyrell Corp take over was no stretch. Being originally petrochem engineering, it was easy for them to make the change over to what became the Big Industry in the US.
A lost USB drive was blamed for the failure of Tyrell Corp’s security issue concerning the replicants. The old facilities had 3 stories of underground office/computing space (old style computers were massive).
The current structure is built over the old underground offices and takes up the entirety of the original property.
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I think there is evidence that Blade Runner and Alien take place in the same universe, so maybe with regard to Weyland-Yutani. 
YoyoDyne has a branch there, too. All office drones, tho, no manufacturing.
By drones, I mean drones. Engineered and cloned as needed.
Plus, the original script for Aliens says that Ash was built by Cyberdyne—changed to “Hyperdyne” in the final film, although the Colonial Marines Technical Manuals sneaks a reference to Cyberdyne back in. Metal.
Back to the OP—according to a Blade Runner wiki, Special effects photographic supervisor Douglas Trumbull said in a 1982 magazine that the Tyrell Building was “way outside the town,” a decision made by him and Scott to make it’s appearance much more stark and menacing.
It was apparently still within reasonable traveling distance of J.SF. Sebastian’s place, though. I dunno if that involved a car, Spinner, taxi, or any form of mass transit.
I always think of it as the refineries off the 405 in Carson, which is about half an hour south of downtown. Driving by at night it has a very Blade Runner-esque feel (maybe not the headquarters building itself, but at least in general, with the haze, the fires, the spooky glow).
Just FYI: In an interview Ridley Scott says that he was partly inspired by having ridden in corporate helicopters around LA & NYC and landing on skyscraper rooftops for meetings etc.
…and all named John…
There goes John Smallberries!
Yoyodyne may have a branch there, but they’re headquartered in Grover’s Mill, NJ (which is actually part of West Windsor Township)
we thought this a tremendous joke, actually – Pepper Mill really did grow up in Grover’s Mill. We think the entire section of Grover’s Mill is smaller than the building shown in Buckaroo Banzai that’s supposed to house it. And there ain’t no palm trees in NJ. Not outdoors, anyway.
Trivia; “Yoyodyne” was first used in the novels of Thomas Pynchon in the 1960s. The name has shown up in numerous other places:
There’s a building not far away on County Road 571 (Princeton-Hightstown Road) that looks really weird, and they called Yoyodyne Industries (It’s actually in East Windsor). Sometimes they called it The Church of the Holy Life Saver, because it looks like the (incredibly ugly) neo-pipework exterior has a faux roofline of giant orange Life Saver candies.
It’s in Star Trek, too. Many involved in TNG were huge BB fans. Star Fleet and the Federation had a presence in San Fransisco and Paris, so L.A. wouldn’t be a stretch for them, either.
So, The Matrix is involved, as well. Interesting…
I just did a review of scenes showing people going/leaving the Tyrell building. Only the first sequence is going to be useful. I’m afraid there’s barely little info to be gleaned.
The first shot is Deckard and Gaff in a spinner heading towards the building. The sun seems to coming from their left a bit.
Later, inside the building, there’s a Sun seen low in the sky before Deckard tests Rachel.
Is this sunset or sunrise? Generally seems to be sunset. Especially since it is dark when they leave the building.
(Motion of spinners and changes in angles suggest the window isn’t a fake.)
But at one point the background is shown during the test and the sky is darker with a hint of a larger light a bit higher than the window. The pollution and approaching rain could make LA in that era very dark at daytime.
I note that there is a clock-like counter shown in the spinner as they left after Gaff picked up Deckard. 16:48:52:19 and rolling. Almost 5pm if that is local time. Time to talk to Bryant and head out before sunset.
If I go with sunset, then the original approach was to the NW. Assuming they flew straight from Police HQ and that was located in the center of LA, They’d have to flown over the Hollywood hills.
In one shot over the Tyrell building, a large flat, expanse is seen. Seems mainly low buildings such as suburban housing and retail. A safe bet would be in the Van Nuys to North Hills area, maybe a little more east.
Santa Clarita is unlikely. Simi Valley would almost do. Oxnard. Hmm. Maybe Oxnard. In the area where the farms are now east of it. Much more W than NW though. Also need to explain the gas flares. (Not a lot of oil N of the hills, either. Let’s assume a new discovery or the flares are from a man made source.)
But, like with way too many movies and TV shows, the angles of sunlight are not kept consistent. So other directions cannot be ruled out.
Here’s the map from the (excellent) Blade Runner computer game: Screenshot of Blade Runner (Windows, 1997) - MobyGames
Looks like maybe a little north of downtown, by Dodger Stadium?
I suppose that probably isn’t canon, though.