The Severance Waterfall Location: 7 Shocking Secrets About Lumon’s ORTBO Site

The *Severance* waterfall scene is one of the most visually striking and thematically confusing moments in the Apple TV+ series, instantly sparking viewer curiosity about its real-life location. As of December 12, 2025, the mystery has been fully resolved: the dramatic, cliff-side locale where the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) team embarks on their mandatory Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurrence (ORTBO) is a genuine, accessible natural wonder in Upstate New York. This article will dive deep into the actual filming site—a place far more serene than Lumon Industries would have you believe—and explore the seven biggest secrets behind this iconic set piece. The fictional "tallest waterfall on the planet," as described by the ever-eager Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), is actually Awosting Falls, nestled within the sprawling beauty of Minnewaska State Park Preserve. This location, a key part of the show's extensive use of the Hudson Valley area, serves as a crucial backdrop for the MDR team’s brief, unsettling glimpse of the outside world, blending the show’s signature corporate dread with breathtaking natural scenery.

The Real-Life ORTBO: Awosting Falls and Minnewaska State Park

The entire sequence for the ORTBO, notably featured in the episode "Woe's Hollow," was filmed at a single, stunning location: Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Ulster County, New York. This park, part of the larger Shawangunk Ridge, provided the perfect blend of dramatic cliffs, dense forest, and an impressive waterfall to create Lumon’s isolated, yet strangely beautiful, retreat.

1. Awosting Falls: The ‘Tallest Waterfall on the Planet’

The star of the ORTBO is undoubtedly the waterfall itself, which the show’s lore claims is the highest on Earth.

• Actual Name: Awosting Falls.
• Actual Height: Approximately 60 feet (18 meters). While impressive, this is a far cry from the world's tallest, Venezuela's Angel Falls (3,212 feet).
• Location: The falls are located near the park's main entrance, cascading over a cliff face into the Peters Kill stream.
• Thematic Significance: The grandiose, false claim by Lumon’s management, delivered by Mr. Milchick, perfectly encapsulates the company’s entire philosophy—a cult-like, manipulative distortion of reality designed to control its "innies."

The trail leading down to the falls is an easy, family-friendly hike, contrasting sharply with the high-stakes drama of the MDR team’s mission. The park's rugged beauty is a testament to the show’s masterful location scouting, which consistently finds real-world places that feel just slightly *off*.

2. The Easy Hike to the ORTBO Site

For fans hoping to visit the exact spot where Mark Scout (Adam Scott), Helly R (Britt Lower), Dylan George (Zach Cherry), and Irving Bailiff (John Turturro) experienced their team-building exercise, the journey is surprisingly simple. The Awosting Falls Trail is a short, out-and-back route. Depending on the starting point (either the upper Awosting Falls parking area or the lower Route 44/55 lot), the hike is generally less than 1.5 miles round-trip and takes about 30 to 45 minutes. It’s an accessible, well-maintained trail, making it a popular destination for tourists and locals in the Hudson Valley region.

3. The True Meaning of ORTBO: Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurrence

The entire waterfall sequence is crucial for understanding Lumon’s manipulation tactics. The ORTBO is presented as a reward and a necessary exposure to the outside world, a concession made to the innies' growing curiosity and distress. The acronym, Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurrence, sounds innocuous, but its execution is anything but. The innies are not given freedom; they are given a highly controlled, supervised field trip where their experiences are filtered through Lumon’s mythology. This trip is where the MDR team is introduced to the story of Dieter, a key piece of Kier Eagan’s (the founder) cult-like history, further cementing the thematic control of the company.

A Deeper Dive Into Severance Filming Locations

The *Severance* creative team, led by director/executive producer Ben Stiller, deliberately chose real-world locations that possess a distinct, slightly retro-futuristic, or anachronistic quality, primarily focusing on the tri-state area of New York and New Jersey. The waterfall is just one piece of a larger, carefully curated world.

4. Lumon Industries Headquarters: The Real-Life Bell Works

While the waterfall provides the natural backdrop, the most iconic filming location is the Lumon Industries exterior.

• The Lumon Building: The massive, imposing structure that Mark Scout walks into every day is actually the former Bell Labs Holmdel Complex, now known as Bell Works, located in Holmdel, New Jersey.
• Architectural Style: The building’s vast, open-air atrium and mid-century modern design (designed by architect Eero Saarinen) perfectly convey the cold, corporate, and disorienting atmosphere of Lumon. This contrast between the cold steel of the office and the warm, natural setting of Awosting Falls highlights the show's central conflict.

5. Mark Scout’s Home and the Town of Kier

Mark Scout’s isolated, wood-paneled home is another key location. The fictional town of Kier, named after the Lumon founder, is a composite of several real towns in the Hudson Valley.

• Mark’s Neighborhood: The idyllic, yet slightly desolate, suburban streets of Mark’s outie life were filmed in various locations across Rockland, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties, including the City of Beacon.
• The Bridge: Mark's daily walk home often features the massive steel Kingston–Port Ewen Suspension Bridge (also known as the Wurts Street Bridge), a memorable landmark in the area.
• Pip’s Bar & Grille: The bar where Mark and his sister Devon Scout-Hale (Jen Tullock) sometimes meet is actually the famous Phoenicia Diner in Phoenicia, NY, a classic roadside establishment.

6. The Cast and Crew Entities That Brought the Waterfall to Life

The success of the ORTBO scene, and the show as a whole, is due to the visionary talent both in front of and behind the camera. The cast list is a who's who of acclaimed actors:

• Director/Executive Producer: Ben Stiller, whose vision anchored the show's unique aesthetic.
• The MDR Team: Adam Scott (Mark Scout), Britt Lower (Helly R), Zach Cherry (Dylan George), and John Turturro (Irving Bailiff).
• Lumon Management: Patricia Arquette (Harmony Cobel/Mrs. Selvig) and Tramell Tillman (Seth Milchick).
• Other Key Characters: Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman (Ms. Casey), and Christopher Walken.

The show's production design and cinematography team were tasked with making the natural beauty of Minnewaska State Park feel both inviting and deeply unsettling, aligning with the show's themes of control and surveillance.

7. Thematic Resonance: Nature vs. The Severed Floor

The final secret of the waterfall location is its profound thematic role. The ORTBO represents the brief, almost cruel, intersection of the innie and outie worlds. The natural world—the towering trees, the rushing water, the open sky—is a symbol of freedom and the unsevered self. For the innies, who spend their lives in the windowless, fluorescent-lit confines of the Severed Floor, this exposure is overwhelming. It is their only connection to the outside world, a world they are told is beautiful but that they cannot truly remember or understand. The waterfall, therefore, is not just a filming location; it is a powerful symbol of the fundamental human desire for connection, memory, and an escape from the psychological prison of Lumon Industries. It is a moment of profound, albeit temporary, grace in a world defined by dread, one of Kier Eagan's Four Tempers.