Six Century City Buildings Lose Their Cool

Lobbies in the Century Plaza Towers sprouted lemonade stands Wednesday, high-powered lawyers ambled into meetings wearing shorts and sandals and sales reps found it a great day to go out and work the territory.

As the mercury settled in above 80, tenants in more than a dozen Century City buildings struggled through their second day without air conditioning.

“We’ve been knocking on doors to find ice because we ran out,” said Susan Lietz of Rogers and Associates Public Relations whose offices are in the towers.

The towers’ management set up lemonade stands in the lobby, and tenants were “coming down in droves,” said Patty Brewer, the buildings’ marketing director

The more than 80 staffers who are normally in the Xerox Corp. sales office in the same building were reduced to five by mid-afternoon, because “many decided to go out into the field today,” said Linda Lowery, the firm’s district finance manager.

Air conditioning failed shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday when a 36-inch line carrying chilled water burst, said Don Girard, an official with the parent company of Central Plants Inc., which provides air conditioning to 19 buildings in Century City.

Along with the towers, other buildings affected were the Century Plaza Hotel, the Shubert Theatre, the ABC Entertainment Center, Century City Hospital and the Century Park East high-rise condominiums.

Temporary refrigeration units were supplied to the hospital, the hotel and the condominiums, Girard said, and crews were working “around the clock” to locate and repair the leak in a pipe buried between 15 to 20 feet in the ground.

Girard said he is “hoping” to have air conditioning restored by Friday.

Century City’s air conditioning also failed in 1984 after a water line was broken. Repairs then took 60 hours, Girard said.