Fox Plaza Adds Color to Westside’s Skyline

The newly completed 34-story Fox Plaza office tower at Avenue of the Stars and Olympic Boulevard adds a distinctive profile to the Century City skyline.

“We have a current 75% leasing commitment, with contracts valued at $176 million,” said James H. Miller, senior vice president of Miller-Klutznick-Davis-Gray Co., the developer of Fox Plaza in joint venture with 20th Century Film Corp.

The contemporary Moderne look of the $200-million building, with 650,000 square feet of rentable space, has strong color effects and faceted shapes, presenting a sharp departure from the existing architecture in Century City.

Clad in salmon Finnish granite and gray tinted glass, Fox Plaza has 16 corner offices on most floors, with panoramic views of the ocean, mountains and downtown.

R. Scott Johnson, partner in charge of design for Pereira Associates, describes the promontory site on the northeast corner of the six-acre 20th Century Fox film lot as providing a special opportunity for the project to stand out.

“We were able to heighten the visibility of the building, instead of having just another skyscraper crowded into a dense core area,” he said. That is one of the advantages in the Southland--the availability of space, which permits us to isolate an architectural statement and have it stand on its own.

“Another positive element we have to work with here is light. On this project we worked very hard on the faceting, much like a diamond cutter would, to create planes that would best reflect that light.”

As buildings on prime sites become more competitive, it becomes harder for developers to lay claim to “firsts” in construction, Miller said, but with Fox Plaza, his firm can claim it now has the first building in Southern California with a central fresh-air tunnel, based on the Venturi tube principle and engineered to exhaust used air from all the floors.

Other significant design elements, he added, are 10-foot ceilings on the seven upper floors, and a 150-by-200-foot motor court at the side of the building to serve vehicles and pedestrians.

The court is paved with panels of red, black and white granite and surrounded by tropical landscaping and berms accented with statuary, art displays and outdoor gathering areas.

Fox Plaza provides vehicular entrances at Avenue of the Stars, Galaxy Way and Olympic Boulevard and a six-level parking structure for 1,830 cars, with enclosed access via elevators and escalators.

General contractor for Fox Plaza was Al Cohen Construction Co. The leasing agent is Cushman Realty Corp.