Century City is a 176-acre (712,000-m2) commercial and residential district on the West Side of the City of Los Angeles. It is bounded by Westwood on the west, Rancho Park on the southwest, Cheviot Hills and Beverlywood on the southeast, and the city of Beverly Hills on the northeast. Its major thoroughfares are Santa Monica, Olympic, and Pico Boulevards (its northern boundary, central artery, and southern boundary, respectively), as well as Avenue of the Stars and Century Park East and West.
Century City is an important business center, and many law firms and executives — particularly those with ties to the film, television, and music industries — have offices there.
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Skyscrapers and other important landmarks
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The high-rise buildings along Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood appear to blend in with those of Century City when seen at a distance, although they are separated by over three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km).
Its gleaming high-rises stand in stark contrast to the small apartment buildings and single-family detached homes in the lower-density neighborhoods surrounding it, and were some of the first skyscrapers built in Los Angeles after the lifting of earthquake-related height restrictions in the early 1960s.
For many years, it was home to the ABC Entertainment Center, which housed network operations for the ABC Television Network and the Shubert Theatre. They were demolished in 2004 and replaced by a modern glass building that houses the headquarters Creative Artists Agency affectionately known as the Death Star, which is part of the complex called Century Park.
Some of the most recognized buildings in Century City include:
- Fox Plaza, 20th Century Fox headquarters most well-known for being Nakatomi Plaza in the movie Die Hard.
- Constellation Place, (or the MGM Tower) headquarters of the historic Hollywood studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
- Watt Plaza
- SunAmerica Center
- Century Plaza Hotel
- Century Plaza Towers, commonly referred to as the "Twin Towers".
- Century City News
History
Once a backlot of 20th Century Fox, which still has its headquarters just to the southwest, the Fox studio commissioned a master-plan development from Welton Becket Associates, which was unveiled at a major press event on the "western" backlot in 1957. In 1961, after Fox suffered a string of expensive flops, culminating in the box-office disaster Cleopatra, the film studio sold about 180 acres (0.73 km2) to developer William Zeckendorf and Aluminum Co. of America, also known as Alcoa. The new owners conceived Century City as "a city within a city."[1] In 1963, the first building, Century City Gateway West, was complete, followed the next year by Minoru Yamasaki's Century Plaza Hotel.
It originally was planned to be served by the Beverly Hills Freeway (Santa Monica Boulevard to the north) and a rapid transit corridor. However, neither of these transportation improvements came to pass, and so Century City is a source of traffic irritation for the residents of Cheviot Hills to the south, since there is no direct freeway access to the center. It is likely that any westward extension of the Los Angeles MTA's Metro Purple Line subway will include a stop at Century City.
Much of the shopping center's architecture and style is shown off in numerous sequences in the 1967 Fox film, A Guide for the Married Man, and can also be seen in a sequence in another Fox film of the same year, Caprice. The way the plaza looked in 1972 can be viewed in several scenes of still another Fox film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
Demographics
In 2009, the Los Angeles Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these Century City statistics: population: 5,513; median household income: $95,135.[2]
Economy
Northrop Grumman and Korn/Ferry are headquartered in Century City.[3]
Emergency services
Fire service
Los Angeles Fire Department Station 92 is the assigned fire station for the district.[4]
Police service
Los Angeles Police Department operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, 90025, serving the neighborhood.[5]
Education
The neighborhood is within the Los Angeles Unified School District.[6] Public schools serving it are Westwood Charter Elementary School, Raplph Waldo Emerson Middle School and Webster Middle School.
Before fall 2007, students in grades 9 through 12 were assigned to Hamilton High School, but, in that term, LAUSD reassigned Century City's 9th graders to University High School, and grades 10 through 12 were to be phased into the University High attendance area.[7]
Notes
- ^ Vincent, Roger (June 3, 2008), "Next Century Associates buys the 1960s-era landmark built on a former studio back lot.", Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-century3-2008jun03,1,3628636.story
- ^ "Century City" entry on the Los Angeles Times "Mapping L.A." website
- ^ "Company Locations." Northrop Grumman. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Fire Station 92," Los Angeles Fire Department
- ^ http://www.lapdonline.org/west_la_community_police_station lapdonline.org
- ^ Upscale living in Tinseltown's back lot January 11 2004, Los Angeles Times
- ^ http://www.laschools.org/employee/mpd/fs-mpd/download/07-08_webmaps/Proj04.pdf laschools.org
External links
- Los Angeles Times, Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: "Century City: Upscale living in Tinseltown's back lot" (11 Jan 2004)
- History of the Century Plaza Hotel
Coordinates: 34°03′20″N 118°25′01″W / 34.05556°N 118.41694°W
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