Century City, Los Angeles

"Century City" redirects here. For other uses, see Century City (disambiguation).

Century City
—  Neighborhood of Los Angeles  —
Century City in January 2009
Century City Location within Western Los Angeles
Coordinates: 34°03′20″N 118°25′01″W / 34.05556°N 118.41694°W / 34.05556; -118.41694
Country	United States
State	California
County	Los Angeles
City	Los Angeles
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)

Century City is a 176-acre (712,000-m²) commercial and residential district on the Westside 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.

Skyscrapers and other important landmarks

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, which hosted many famous Broadway musicals, such as Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables, Cats, Annie, Evita, Sunset Boulevard, and Mamma Mia! The Shubert was demolished in 2002 and became 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. Another show that Century City can often be seen in is "Modern Family" due to its production from Fox Studios right next door.

Some of the most recognized buildings in Century City include:

• The Century Towers
• Century Plaza Towers, commonly referred to as the "Twin Towers".
• 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 film company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Watt Plaza
• SunAmerica Center
• Century Plaza Hotel
• Century City News

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  Aerial view of the Century City neighborhood; Fox Studios still occupies the lower left quadrant

• 

  Century City Skyline as seen from Runyon Canyon Park. Feb. 19th, 2006

• 

  View of the Century City skyline from the Getty Center. Downtown Los Angeles (Bunker Hill district) can faintly be seen to the east of Century City. Taken December 22, 2004.

• 

  The Century Plaza Towers

• 

  The Fox Plaza

• 

  At the southern end of Century City, Fox Plaza towers over the nearby neighborhoods.

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

MGM Tower, the headquarters of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Companies with headquarters in Century City include Crystal Cruises,^[3][4] International Lease Finance Corporation,^[5] Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM Tower),^[6] Creative Artists Agency, Moelis & Co, Canyon Capital Advisors, Ares Management, Imperial Capital, LLC and Korn/Ferry and Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP.^{[citation needed]}

Northrop Grumman was headquartered in Century City until 2011,^[7][8][9] when it relocated to the Falls Church, Virginia area.^[10] Univision Communications had its headquarters in Century City.^[11][12] By 2007 Univision moved its headquarters to New York City.^[13]

Government and infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Century City.^[14]

Emergency services

Fire service

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 92 is the assigned fire station for the district.^[15]

Police service

Los Angeles Police Department operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, 90025, serving the neighborhood.^[16]

Education

The neighborhood is within the Los Angeles Unified School District.^[17] Public schools serving it are Westwood Charter Elementary School, Ralph 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.^[18]

Notes

1. ^ 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 
2. ^ "Century City" entry on the Los Angeles Times "Mapping L.A." website
3. ^ "Contact Us." Crystal Cruises. Retrieved on January 20, 2010. "Crystal Cruises 2049 Century Park East Suite 1400 Los Angeles, CA 90067"
4. ^ "Article: Los Angeles-Based Crystal Cruises Moves to Nearby Location." PR Newswire. August 19, 1998. Retrieved on January 20, 2010. "Effective September 8, Crystal Cruises is relocating to larger headquarters a few blocks from its current location in the Century City area of Los Angeles, California."
5. ^ "Contact Us." International Lease Finance Corporation. Retrieved on 6 May 2011. "10250 Constellation Blvd. Suite 3400 Los Angeles, CA 90067 USA"
6. ^ "Corporate Information." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Retrieved on September 6, 2011. "Our location, the sleek, beautifully appointed corporate headquarters at MGM Tower in Century City,[...]"
7. ^ "Company Locations." Northrop Grumman. Retrieved on May 12, 2009. "Northrop Grumman Corporate Headquarters* 1840 Century Park East Los Angeles, California 90067-2199"
8. ^ Hyland, Alexa. "SoCal’s Aerospace Sector Still Has Lots of Lift." Los Angeles Business Journal. January 11, 2010. Retrieved on January 10, 2010.
9. ^ "Company Locations." Northrop Grumman. Retrieved on May 12, 2009.
10. ^ "The Ticker." Washington Post, January 4, 2010. Retrieved on January 4, 2010.
11. ^ "2001 Annual Report." Univision Communications. 36 (20/20). Retrieved on March 30, 2010. "Corporate Headquarters Univision Communications Inc. 1999 Avenue of the Stars Suite 3050 Los Angeles, CA 90067"
12. ^ James, Meg. "IN BRIEF / MEDIA; Televisa Ends Attempt to Take Over Univision." Los Angeles Times. September 19, 2006. Business Part C Business Desk C6. Retrieved on March 30, 2010. "Univision is based in Century City."
13. ^ James, Meg. "TELEVISION; Univision's new image is star of the party." Los Angeles Times. May 17, 2007. C1. Retrieved on August 28, 2011. "With the acquisition, Univision has moved its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to New York, where Uva is based."
14. ^ "About Us." Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Retrieved on March 18, 2010.
15. ^ "Fire Station 92," Los Angeles Fire Department
16. ^ http://www.lapdonline.org/west_la_community_police_station lapdonline.org
17. ^ Upscale living in Tinseltown's back lot January 11, 2004, Los Angeles Times
18. ^ http://www.laschools.org/employee/mpd/fs-mpd/download/07-08_webmaps/Proj04.pdf laschools.org

External links

Los Angeles portal

• 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 / 34.05556; -118.41694