Home / Neighborhoods / Century City
The towers between Beverly Hills and Westwood: skyline living with the Westside at your feet.
About the Neighborhood
Century City occupies what was a ranch owned by early western film star Tom Mix and then the backlot of the Twentieth Century Fox studio. Facing financial strain in the late 1950s, Fox leadership under Spyros Skouras, working with Edmond Herrscher, commissioned a Welton Becket master plan in 1957 for a city within a city, and in 1961 the studio sold roughly 180 acres to developer William Zeckendorf and Alcoa. The first office building opened in 1963, and Minoru Yamasaki's crescent-shaped Century Plaza Hotel followed in 1966, fixing the district's modernist identity.
There are no single-family houses in Century City; the residential stock is towers and gated low-rise enclaves. Century Towers on Avenue of the Stars dates to the mid-1960s, joined over the decades by Century Park East's twin high-rises, Park Place, Century Hill, Le Parc and Century Woods among the townhome and mid-rise communities, and by a newer generation including The Century, the Robert A.M. Stern-designed tower completed around 2010, and Ten Thousand on Santa Monica Boulevard. Units range from compact postwar condominiums to full-floor contemporary residences, nearly all with association-managed amenities such as valet, pools and staffed lobbies.
What governs ownership here is the homeowners-association layer more than zoning. Each building or enclave runs on its own CC&Rs, budget and reserve study, with dues covering security, staffing and amenities, and with rules on leasing, pets and remodeling that vary building to building; older towers periodically face re-piping, facade and elevator projects funded by reserves or assessments. At the district scale, the Century City North and South specific plans have long managed office and residential intensity, and new proposals, including further towers near the mall, move through that framework. Buyers are effectively underwriting a corporation as much as a condominium.
The practical texture is a high-rise business district that empties differently than a neighborhood: office towers, law and talent agencies, and the Westfield Century City mall, extensively rebuilt in 2017, supply restaurants, a market and a cinema within walking distance of most residences. Adjacent Beverly Hills, Rancho Park's public golf course and Cheviot Hills' parks fill in what the district lacks in street-grid charm. Metro's D Line subway extension includes a Century City station at Constellation Boulevard, expected to link the district toward the Miracle Mile and downtown, a change that residents and office landlords alike are watching closely.
Buyers should verify the association before the unit: current financial statements, reserve funding levels, recent and pending special assessments, litigation, master insurance coverage including earthquake, and leasing caps that affect both lifestyle and lender approval. In older towers, ask specifically about plumbing riser replacement, window systems and balcony work. Confirm parking rights and storage as deeded or assigned. On schools, Century City is LAUSD territory with boundaries that surprise people, and commonly cited assignments run toward the Overland Avenue and Fairburn attendance areas depending on address, so run the exact building through the district's Resident School Identifier rather than trusting listings.
Life Here
Century Towers and its peers: gated grounds, tennis and doormen who remember three owners back.
The Century and Fairmont residences set the current standard for service and scale.
Beverly Hills for dinner, Westwood for culture, the office downstairs. Geography as amenity.
Education
Assignment follows the individual parcel, Century City's LAUSD boundaries are less intuitive than the district's polish suggests, and lines change, so confirm any building's resident schools directly with LAUSD.
Common Questions
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