The pool at the Fairmont Century City hotel in Los Angeles.Brandon Barré Photography/Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Los Angeles is one of those rare cities with neighbourhoods so famous that even people who’ve never stepped foot inside them know them well. Malibu? Reclusive millionaires soaking in the view of the Pacific. Beverly Hills? Giants of Industry ensconced in gated mansions with beautiful facades. Santa Monica? A compact take on an idyllic beach town. Even gritty downtown has remade itself into a renowned culture-and-restaurant destination of late.
But mention Century City – that nascent district and former studio backlot smack dab in the middle of all those iconic ‘hoods – and you’ll likely get a blank stare (or, if you’re lucky, “Nakatomi Plaza?” from an aging Die Hard fan).
The tide is turning though. The awards shows have started to return to this deserted part of town – The Oscars’ lunch and the Producers Guild of America checked into the Fairmont Century City in early 2022 and in 2023, pre-strike, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards and Writers Guild Awards all hosted their shows at the hotel.
While other L.A. locales have been trod for well over 100 years, Century City first arrived on the scene in just 1963. But that doesn’t mean it lacks serious history: the town first took shape as cowboy actor Tom Mix’s ranch until he sold the sprawling expanse to William Fox, owner of Fox Studios, in 1925 to house the then-growing picture studio’s back lot.
The view of the Avenue of the Stars from the Fairmont Century City hotel in Los Angeles. The hotel opened in 1966 as the Century Plaza Hotel and it reopened in 2021 after an extensive, five-year renovation.Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Things went swimmingly for decades until the early 1960s when a series of underperforming pictures, culminating in the disaster that was the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton debacle Cleopatra, had executives clamouring for cash. Soon, all 176 acres were sold off to developers and Century City as it exists today – tall towers, wide boulevards – began to take shape.
Locals who need to hire a lawyer, retain an accountant or pitch an agent are familiar with Century City’s gleaming business towers, visible from almost every vista in L.A. But if you’re from out of town, you may have heard the area has long been a tourist black hole, despite its ideal location cradled between Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
Other than a smattering of serviceable chains, a serious dearth of suitable accommodation has always prevailed with the beachside boutique inns of Santa Monica beckoning or the high-wattage five-star hotels of Beverly Hills winning out. All of that changed with the reopening of what was once the grandest building in the City of Angels – the Century Plaza Hotel.
The Minoru Yamasaki-designed hotel has been placed on the U.S. National Trust for Historic Places.Brandon Barre Photography/Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
When the Minoru Yamasaki-designed hotel opened in 1966, it was the toniest address within 100 miles. (Yamasaki had simply been tasked to “Just design the most beautiful hotel in the world.”) The doormen wore beefeater costumes, the venue hosted the Emmys and Grammys and its grand ballroom was booked by President Nixon to host a state dinner to celebrate the landing on the moon. Meanwhile, President Reagan stayed there so frequently it was dubbed the “Western White House.”
But as the millennia closed, the curved 19-storey mid-century wonder was floundering: it was a Westin, then a Hyatt, then part of its quarters were converted into condos. When it was sold in 2008, it was decided the entire building would be razed altogether in favour of still more condos.
Thanks to some serious lobbying – in part by actress Diane Keaton – people took note: what would Century City be without that iconic landmark? The building was swiftly placed on the National Trust for Historic Places’ most endangered list and mercifully saved. It turns out, the crumbling Century Plaza Hotel was Century City.
Full salvation arrived in September, 2021, after a rumoured $2.5-billion renovation and more than five years of construction. Out of the original mid-century 726-room shell, 485 swish new rooms emerged as new the Fairmont Century Plaza.
In a vast city dominated by a seemingly endless number of boutique hotels, Fairmont Century Plaza’s heady dose of old-school luxury and service has created buzz well outside the neighbourhood boundaries. Its contemporary, sophisticated interiors were completed by Toronto’s Yabu Pushelberg and their signature blending of old-school glamour with clean modernism is a shot across the bow to the lo-fi ethos that marks so many buzzy new L.A. hot spots – no one here is trying to make this feel like, you know, your living room, man. The massive circular driveway gives a true sense of grand occasion, which is often lacking in new lodging upstarts.
The hotel’s high-tech spa features state-of-the-art biohacking rooms where the tired and worn can transform into the vibrant and jaunty thanks to inflatable stockings that stimulate blood flow and sensory deprivation headsets (word is, FBI agents do it too). New French brasserie Lumiere has become the low-key spot for high-wattage star-spotting thanks, in part, to uber-Agency CAA’s location just across the street.
For mere mortals, however, this paean to the past offers the chance to immerse oneself in a moment of rare quiet in a vast city that thrives on frenetic action and gridlock as if it were an inevitable force of nature.
The French brasserie Lumiere in Century City has become a popular spot for celebrity spotting.Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
But the key to Century City itself is that it’s your launch pad to explore the rest of Los Angeles with the least amount of resistance. Its quiet confines far from the madding crowd mean you’re less than four miles from LACMA and only minutes away from hiking the steep and, rather surprisingly, rugged terrain of Beverly Hills. The Getty Center is under six miles away while the Santa Monica Farmer’s market is under eight.
And notwithstanding that Century City as a tourist draw is still in its beta phase, with only a smattering of restaurants and shops, there are still things to do here. Nearby hidden treasure of a restaurant Hinoki and the Bird is a stone’s throw as is L.A.’s only Eataly outpost, which anchors the Kelly Wearstler-designed Westfield Century City, the open mall that’s easily one of the world’s swankiest shopping venues replete with open-air caviar food cart.
The boulevards aren’t yet crammed with people (and that’s a good thing) although you might catch sight of a few celebrities and their agents ready to ink their next deal.
But they have built it and we should come.
- Fairmont Century City Plaza offers a heady dose of old-school glam with rooms starting at US$500. www.fairmontcenturyplaza.com
The writer travelled as a guest of Fairmont Century City hotel. It did not review or approve the story before publication.