Century City Project Upsets Some Residents
John Levi likes what he sees in Century City.
“I have a view from Beverly Hills to Long Beach,” he says. “I have 48 feet of windows and a balcony. I look down on 200-plus varieties of trees and thousands of flowers. The flowers are changed as needed--about 21/2 times a year.
“I love it here. I do.”
Levi lives in Century City, an exclusive Los Angeles enclave of high-rise offices, underground parking and an almost invisible neighborhood of residences.
Four thousand people, in fact, live in the half-square-mile area on the southwestern edge of Beverly Hills that was built as Los Angeles’ first experiment with mixed-use development.
For 40 years, it has been a bastion of stability. Its condominiums have been filled with a mix of actors, Hollywood agents and well-heeled retirees, widows and divorcees. Its offices have bulged with lawyers and entertainment industry types. Its posh hotels with business travelers and others looking for luxury without the appearance of extravagance.
There are movie theaters and restaurants within easy walking distance. At its heart, the Shubert Theatre fit right in by offering a diet of tried-and-true Broadway musicals--the type of fare easily within the comfort zone of those living and visiting nearby.
But the Shubert and the rest of the ABC Entertainment Center are coming down, and a new office complex is going up. And suddenly, Levi isn’t sure he likes what he’s starting to see from his 11th-floor condominium.
“If they build it like they show in the sketches, it will be awful for the merchants who will lose their space. To me the answer is not to build another 15-story office building. I think it will destroy the ambience,” he says.
The $300-million structure planned for Avenue of the Stars will be an eye-catcher. It will have a 90-by-110-foot hole in the middle of it that opens onto a plaza. It will replace the 30-year-old Shubert and the shops, cafes and cinemas that are between the Century Plaza Hotel and the twin 44-story Century Plaza Towers office buildings.
The project, proposed to start next year, is not the only new development that residents worry is tipping Century City’s scales from civility to too much commerce.
A 35-floor office tower under construction atop a former parking lot on Constellation Place on the western edge of Century City will open next year. MGM will be the primary tenant, occupying more than half of the 700,000 square feet of what will be called MGM Tower.
Concern Over Traffic, Losing Character
But it is the redevelopment of the Shubert and the rest of the ABC Entertainment Center properties that has locals worried about losing neighborhood character and convenience--and about choking on new traffic congestion.
There was head-scratching at a Century City Chamber of Commerce meeting when development planners displayed a scale-model of the proposed building with its open-air “window.”
“Where are we going to eat?” asked law office employee Kathryn Gepner, pointing out that a collection of fast-food outlets and other small restaurants and cafes that cater to many of Century City’s 40,000 workers will disappear.
Project planners said details of a new tenant mix have yet to be worked out. But they promised that initial plans call for a major restaurant as well as “cultural amenities” that will replace the Shubert.
“We feel that losing the Shubert should be mitigated,” said Dan Niemann, an executive with Trammell Crow, the Texas-based real estate company spearheading the new construction plan and operating the property for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which bought it in 1997.
Niemann suggested that the building’s unusual hole-in-the-center design will help tame the ocean breeze that sweeps over the Century Plaza Hotel, hits the 35th floor of the twin towers and then forms a windy swirl around the courtyard between the structures.
“We think it’s exactly what’s needed” to compensate for “the more aging assets here in Century City,” he said of the proposed building.
The worries of Century City residents and workers and of homeowners in the nearby Cheviot Hills area were quickly noted at Los Angeles City Hall.
Councilman Jack Weiss, who was elected last fall to represent the Westside neighborhoods, asked that the city require a full environmental impact report for the project. Trammell Crow wanted the project to qualify for a so-called mitigated negative declaration and avoid the complicated and costly report.
“The trick is maintaining a balance in Century City,” said Weiss. “On one hand, we have a commercial center that has no competition in attracting top-flight law firms, and on the other hand, making sure that doesn’t overwhelm existing neighborhoods.”
Although the neighborhood is touted as Los Angeles’ premier example of a master-planned commercial-residential setting, it really isn’t, according to Weiss.
“You can’t really call it ‘mixed use.’ The two uses are really not co-located. It hasn’t been designed in a pedestrian-friendly way. It’s a walking area for people in office buildings to get a bite to eat at lunch. But it’s empty at nighttime.”
Its sidewalks are vacant most hours of the day, even though residents and workers alike say they feel safe as pedestrians. Authorities say there is minimal street crime because on-street parking is banned in Century City, and thieves are not inclined to pay $15 to park in subterranean lots just so they can snatch purses.
Planners Envisioned Busy Walkways
Ghostly walkways are not what city planners envisioned in the 1950s, when an urban development philosophy called the “centers plan” was taking hold at City Hall.
Residential apartment units would be constructed near concentrated high-rise office buildings and connected by green space and walkways. “Commuting” to work would be as simple as strolling from your front door to your office door, officials speculated.
Century City, carved starting in 1959 out of a 176-acre chunk of 20th Century Fox’s western movie set lot, was Los Angeles’ first “centers plan” experiment. The second was Warner Center--created from the remnants of movie mogul Harry Warner’s real horse ranch in Woodland Hills in the western San Fernando Valley.
The Aluminum Co. of America, or Alcoa, was Century City’s initial developer. The striking skyscrapers were clad, naturally, in aluminum. They created a sleekly urbane business environment. The open-air 140-store Century City Shopping Center was also built on the northwestern edge and remains vibrant after its own face-lifts.
Although a proposed freeway link to other parts of Los Angeles was never built and not a single courthouse is located there, about 5,000 lawyers set up shop in the orderly office towers. The area became popular with entertainment industry tenants too. These days, Century City’s 22 office buildings are 88% occupied, compared with an 84% occupancy rate for the greater Los Angeles area, according to real estate experts.
Housing followed, as did the 1,072-room Century Plaza Hotel, which for decades was the community’s centerpiece. It was the setting for conventions and was used almost nightly for citywide charity events. Kings and presidents from Richard Nixon on stayed there. Ronald Reagan liked the place so much that he took office space in the nearby Fox Tower (known as the “Die Hard” movie building) after his presidency ended.
Century City’s 4,000 residents are scattered in six carefully guarded residential compounds. Demographic studies characterize the residents as success stories: The median household income in 1997 was $70,484, even though 33% of residents never attended college. In comparison, nearby Westwood registered a $50,653 median household income, while only 18% had not attended college.
Three out of four Century City residents, like John Levi, own their condominium units.
Levi, 71, has lived there since 1976. He was a Beverly Hills financial planner who was getting a divorce and was familiar with Century City because his mother lived there when he purchased his second-floor one-bedroom Century Towers unit for $55,000. Nine years ago, he sold it for $170,000 and moved to a larger unit on the 11th floor.
Developers Worked With Residents
In the past, Levi says, developers such as those next door at 20th Century Fox studios have carefully worked with residents to minimize inconveniences when new construction took place in Century City. He worries, though, that certain qualities could be slipping. Levi says unsightly signs and logos never appeared on buildings; now they’re starting to pop up.
Its residential areas are still well-maintained, however. Over the years, Levi’s neighbors have included actors Burt Lancaster, Michael Douglas and Sean Connery, as well as singer Karen Carpenter.
Levi says he is one of the few people who walk in Century City. He strolls half an hour daily, often to the other side of Century City, where his girlfriend, former actress and now casting director Gerrie Wormser, lives.
She is a transplanted New Yorker who also enjoys walking.
“It’s kind of an elegant feeling. A feeling like, ‘Well, I really made something of myself, coming from the Bronx.’ But there are downsides too. We don’t have a Central Park here. There isn’t really a park in Century City, which is sad,” said Wormser, a widow who has lived at Century Park East for 25 years.
“The Shubert made me feel like I was really in New York. Losing the ABC Center is a big loss.”
Still, Wormser is like Levi. Despite the neighborhood’s changes, she has no intention of walking out on Century City.
