Century City, Los Angeles

Century City
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Century City on January 25, 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

Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood in Los Angeles' Westside.

The neighborhood was developed on the former backlot of film studio 20th Century Fox, and its first building was opened in 1963. There are two private schools, but no public schools in the neighborhood. Important to the economy are a shopping center, business towers, and Fox Studios.^[1]

There are 5,900+ residents. The population is largely white, older-aged, high-income, with a high attainment in education compared to the rest of the city.

Geography

According to the Mapping L.A. project of the Los Angeles Times, Century City is bordered on the northeast and east by Beverly Hills, on the southeast and south by Cheviot Hills, on the southwest and west by West Los Angeles and on the northwest by Westwood.^[2]

History

Avenue of the Stars, 1978

The land of Century City belonged to cowboy actor Tom Mix (1880-1940), who used it as a ranch.^[3] It later became a backlot of 20th Century Fox, which still has its headquarters just to the southwest.^[3]

In 1956, Spyros Skouras (1893-1971), who served as the President of 20th Century Fox from 1942-62, and his nephew-in-law Edmond Herrscher (died 1983), an attorney sometimes known as "the father of Century City," decided to repurpose the land for real estate development.^[3][4] The following year, in 1957, they commissioned a master-plan development from Welton Becket Associates, which was unveiled at a major press event on the "western" backlot later that year.^[3]

In 1961, after Fox suffered a string of expensive flops, culminating with the financial strain put on the studio by the very expensive production of Cleopatra, the film studio sold about 180 acres (0.73 km²) to developer William Zeckendorf and Aluminum Co. of America, also known as Alcoa, for US$300 million (US$2.4 billion in 2014's money).^[3] Herrscher had encouraged his uncle-in-law to borrow money instead, but once Skouras refused, he was out of the picture.^[3]

The new owners conceived Century City as "a city within a city".^[5] In 1963, the first building, Gateway West Building, was completed.^[3] The next year, in 1964, Minoru Yamasaki designed the Century Plaza Hotel.^[3] Five years later, in 1969, architects Anthony J. Lumsden and César Pelli designed the Century City Medical Plaza.^[6]

Much of the shopping center's architecture and style can be seen in numerous sequences in the 1967 Fox film, A Guide for the Married Man, as well as in a sequence in another Fox film of the same year, Caprice. Century City's plaza as it appeared in the early 1970s can be viewed in several scenes of still another Fox film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).

Population

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

The 2000 U.S. census counted 5,513 residents in the 0.70-square-mile Century City neighborhood—or 7,869 people per square mile, an average population density for the city and county. The Southern California Association of Governments estimates that the daytime population amounts to 48,343 on a working day. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 5,934.^[7]

In 2008, the median age for residents was 46, older than average for the city and the county. The percentage of residents aged 65 and older (26.4%) was the highest for any neighborhood in Los Angeles County. The percentages of widowed men and women and of divorced men were among the county's highest. Military veterans accounted for 11.9% of the population, a high rate for the city and the county.^[7][8]

The neighborhood was considered "not especially diverse" ethnically, with a high percentage of white residents. The breakdown was whites, 82.5%; Asians, 8.6%; Latinos, 4.4%; blacks, 1.4%; and others, 3,0%. Iran (21.2%) and Canada (6.1%) were the most common places of birth for the 25.5% of the residents who were born abroad—a low percentage, compared to the city at large.^[7]

The median yearly income in 2014 was $95,135, a high figure for Los Angeles. The percentage of households that earned $125,000 and up was high for Los Angeles County. The average household size of 1.8 people was low for Los Angeles. Renters occupied 39.6% of the housing stock and apartment owners held 60.4%.^[7]

Economy

Constellation Place (formerly the MGM Tower)

The Century City Shopping Mall and Fox Studios occupy important acreage in the neighborhood.

One tower, Constellation Place (formerly the MGM Tower),^[9] has the headquarters of Houlihan Lokey,^[10] International Creative Management,^[11] and International Lease Finance Corporation.^[12] Crystal Cruises is also headquartered in Century City.^[13][14]

Government and infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Century City.^[15]

Emergency services

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 92 is the assigned fire station for the district.^[16] The Los Angeles Police Department operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, 90025, serving the neighborhood.

Education

Lycée Français de Los Angeles Century City Campus, Pico Blvd.

Fifty-five percent of Century City residents aged 25 or over had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a high figure for Los Angeles.^[7]

Los Angeles Unified School District is the school district of Century City.

Three private schools are located within the Century City neighborhood — VINCI Academy Daycare & Preschool, at 1940 Century Park East; Lycée Français de Los Angeles, at 10361 Pico Boulevard; and Temple Isaiah Preschool and Kindergarten, at 10345 West PIco Boulevard.^[17]

Gallery

• 

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

• 

  Century Plaza Towers

• 

  Fox Plaza

References

External links

• Media related to Century City, Los Angeles, California at Wikimedia Commons
• History of the Century Plaza Hotel

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Coordinates: 34°03′20″N 118°25′01″W / 34.05556°N 118.41694°W / 34.05556; -118.41694