Century City Historical Remembrances

(Originally appeared in the July 1, 2004 edition of the Century City News)

I’m sitting in the living room of the Katz’s. The view is spectacular. As the sun goes down the lights of Century City begin to glow and the view goes from spectacular to breathtaking. Harold begins to thumb through albums that he has carefully prepared over the years for occasions just like this. He reminisces about his role in the development of Century City and I feel the love he has for the people and the buildings that have become such a Mecca for business.

The whole theory of the Centers mode was to have public transportation. The Beverly Hills Freeway and the Subway were supposed to be built to support the Century City. The Beverly Hills Freeway was killed by Beverly Hills because they wanted it cut and covered. Harold suggested that they issue a bond to pay for the cover and Caltrans would pay for the cut. The state had bought most of the right of way from the Hollywood Freeway and had torn down most of the homes. In the end Ronald Reagan killed the project sighting the protection of Beverly Hills’ property values as the reason.

The subway didn’t fare much better. The metro was going to come down Wilshire and Santa Monica then it was going to angle into Century City then it would angle back to Wilshire to catch Westwood and then follow Wilshire Blvd. to the beach. A bill was passed in the United States Congress that forbids the Metro to extend west of Vermont. If the subway is every going to connect with Century City it will now take an act of Congress.

Century City was originally intended by Alcoa to be a city where everybody walked to work.  The executive the secretaries, the mailroom clerks. What happened is that the land values escalated so quickly that none of the workers could afford to own property.

“Life is what happens while you are making plans”, says Harold, quoting Jon Lennon. People were going to walk to work and that didn’t happen. There was going to be a Beverly Hills Freeway and that didn’t happen. There was supposed to be subway stations and that didn’t happen. Traffic steadily worsened and the solution was a few “well placed” Traffic Control Officers that really improved the traffic. The Officers would direct traffic through a red light if it improved the flow. The job those Officers did has been replaced by computer assisted signals.

Harold’s wife Jan reminisces about her time in Century City. Jan remembers Jerry Asher showing her a mock up of Century City that was in the first building built – one of the Gateway buildings. Her business (Janway Staffing) now resides in West Los Angeles around the corner for Century City but many of her clients are still located in Century City. Jan was the founder of the “Women’s Network” which later became the woman’s council.

It all began when Alcoa bought the land from Fox so that they could prove buildings could be built with aluminum. Alcoa built the two gateway buildings, the shopping center and the two 1901 buildings. In 1969 I began with Bob Hatfield. I went to Hatfield and told him it was time to have a chamber of commerce. He assigned John McComb to me and it began as the Century City Civic Council which later became the Century City Chamber of Commerce. In ’72 Harold became the president serving two consecutive terms.

They welcomed Harold into the Alcoa family and listened to his advice and guidance. They sold off the east side of Century Park East to developers. Here we find very little space around the buildings. The Alcoa guys were top notch. “Look at the setbacks on Avenue of the Stars - look at the fountain, and the greenery. These guys just wanted a showplace.” Says Katz.

During Katz term as president the chamber sponsored “Girl Watching Week” which stirred the following response from the Los Angeles Chapter of NOW:

Mr. Harold Katz

Century City Chamber of Commerce

In these days of social awareness it’s regrettable that responsible professional women and men must still take time from their busy schedules to protest remnants of social injustice such a remnant is Century City’s laughingly outmoded but none the less outrageously offensive girl watching week. We protest Girl Watching Week because it invades the privacy of women who must work or shop in Century City. It invades the privacy of Century City Girls your terminology not ours by forcing them either to remain indoors for a week or submit meekly to the unwanted leering scrutiny of girl watchers. Since you remain unaware of the fact that women  deplore being unwitted participants in a vulgar circus please expect that we will use all means available to us including economic pressure to enlighten you to the damage that girl watching week does to your civic image and to the bitter resentment that it inspires in the majority of your shopping public.

With all sincerity,

Virginia L. Carter President

Los Angeles National Organization of Women

Century City Officials have defended the celebration  as a light hearted tribute to the beauty and charm of the women who work and visit the new city complex. We’ve had constant comments from people all over the world that Century City was unique as a location for seeing lovely women, stated Harold Katz, and every one refers to it as girl watching consequently we decided to stage an annual girl watching week. We certainly did not consider the event in any way to be offensive or a vulgar circus as the women’s lib advocate insists on describing it. It’s a good humor tribute to women and the fact that men love looking at beautiful women.

It must be time to go the Hyatt has just turned off their lights.