 Production designer Alex McDowell intended Nixon 's war room to pay tribute to the war room in the film Dr. Strangelove . He also wanted Dr. Manhattan 's apartment , which is inside his laboratory , to look like the work of Maison Jansen , explaining that " the powers that be , who know nothing about design , but needed [ Manhattan ] to feel like he was the most important guy in America " . The apartment also echoes the film The Man Who Fell to Earth , with a book prop named Masterpieces in Paint and Poetry and a tennis courtroom with similar wallpaper . Set designers selected four Kansas City sculptors ' works for use on the set of Dr. Manhattan 's apartment , after discovering their works on the Internet . Filming ended on February 19 , 2008 . 
