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CENTURY PLAZA HOTEL
History and Significance
 Basic Information
Did You Know?
Moments in History
About the Architect (National Trust website)
Basic Information
Built between 1964 and 1966, the Century Plaza Hotel was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, a highly significant architect and one of several internationally renowned architects enlisted by architect Welton Becket during his firm’s master planning for Century City. Yamasaki also designed New York’s World Trade Center towers and Century City’s twin Century Plaza Towers (1975).
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Photo by Frank T. Reid, courtesy of Mindi Reid.
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Built as the centerpiece of Century City, the nineteen-story Century Plaza is an elegant building, with a sweeping, curved shape facing the fountains along the Avenue of the Stars.
It is innovative in its formal expression and strongly conveys the postwar optimism of the 1960s. Its curved design gave every room a scenic view from a balcony. Sixteen floors stand above ground; and the underground floors house ballrooms, meeting rooms, restaurants, and shops.
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Ella Fitzgerald arrives at the Century Plaza Hotel in 1984, where she became the first woman to receive top honors from the National Urban League. Photo from the Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library. |
The Century Plaza opened in 1966 and has served ever since as a premiere hotel for celebrities, politicians, and world dignitaries.
It has been nicknamed the “West Coast White House” since the 1970s. Ronald Reagan brought the hotel into the spotlight with his frequent stays and two presidential victory celebrations in the 1980s. With a ballroom large enough to accommodate 2,000 people, the Century Plaza has hosted countless conferences and events for Angelenos and visitors alike.
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Photo by LAC staff |
According to a history of Century City by Greg Owens for the Century City Chamber of Commerce, the hotel “improved business for the neighboring shopping center and before long, new restaurants sprang to life.
The hotel also brought new demands for office space – fueling the prosperous development of Century City over the next decade and forging its reputation as a truly modern, world-class destination.
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Aerial view, circa 1985, with Century Plaza Hotel in the foreground facing the Twin Towers built in 1975. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library. |
The hotel currently operates as a Hyatt Regency and was purchased by Next Century Associates in May 2008.
In a Los Angeles Times piece from June 3, 2008, Next Century head Michael Rosenfeld called the Century Plaza “a jewel in my hometown.” In the same article, hotel industry consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality called it “an iconic building in a fantastic location.”
Did You Know?
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Minoru Yamasaki on the January 13, 1963 cover of TIME Magazine, one of only a handful of architects to grace the cover of TIME. Reprinted through the courtesy of the Editors of TIME Magazine © 2009 Time Inc |
The Century Plaza Hotel opened in 1966 as the centerpiece of Century City, a “city within a city” that heralded a bold new approach to urban design. The Century Plaza fueled the development of Century City and forged its reputation as a world-class destination.
- The 19-story hotel was designed by renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912-1986), who would later design New York’s World Trade Center twin towers (1974-2001) and the twin Century Plaza Towers (1975).
- The son of Japanese immigrants, the Seattle-born Yamasaki was one of only about a dozen architects ever featured on the cover of TIME Magazine (in 1963).
- On August 13, 1969, the hotel was the site of a presidential dinner honoring the Apollo 11 astronauts on their return from the first manned moon landing. Hosted by President Nixon, the evening was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “The Dinner of the Century,” “the dinner that welcomed astronauts back to Earth,” and "one of history's most significant meals" at "one of the world's finest hotels."
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Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library |
Once nicknamed the “West Coast White House,” the hotel has been a favorite of U.S. presidents, particularly Ronald Reagan. Reagan held his two presidential victory parties at the Century Plaza and did much of his work in the hotel’s Presidential Suite while in California—from writing State of the Union speeches to meeting with world leaders and national security advisors to celebrating with the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.
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The hotel’s popularity with political leaders has made it a historic location for political activism, from Vietnam War protests in the late 1960s to a 2003 CODEPINK demonstration against the war in Iraq, and more.
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Courtesy David Markland |
In 2008, the Century Plaza served as a prime gathering place for supporters of Barack Obama, hosting phone banks and, ultimately, the victory gala for the first African-American president in U.S. history.
- The Century Plaza is one of Yamasaki's most cited works, profiled in publications including Arts & Architecture (1964) and Architectural Record (1966).
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© J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute |
One of the requirements of the hotel was that it convey a sense of festive celebration to the arriving guests. "Coming to a hotel should be an event, a fun thing," said Yamasaki.
- The hotel is one of the few remaining original elements of Century City.
- Demolishing the hotel would create nearly 64,000 tons of debris—enough to fill 416 railroad
boxcars, or a train nearly four miles long.
- The Century Plaza has been a vital asset and cultural touchstone for Los Angeles since it opened, through its constant use by a unique cross-section of politics, entertainment, and society.
- The Century Plaza received a $36 million facelift in 2008.
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