The Century Plaza Hotel
| The Century Plaza Hotel | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Type | Hotel |
| Location | 2025 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates | 34°03′27″N 118°24′57″W / 34.057449°N 118.415886°W |
| Completed | 1966 |
| Owner | Next Century Associates |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 19 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Minoru Yamasaki |
The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles is a landmark 19-story luxury hotel forming a sweeping crescent design fronting the spectacular fountains on Avenue of the Stars, adjacent to the twin Century Plaza Towers and the new 2000 Avenue of the Stars complex which houses Fidelity Investments, Comerica Bank, UBS Wealth Management, and talent agency CAA. It was known as the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza from 2006 to 2016, when it closed for reconstruction.
The Century Plaza Hotel opened on June 1, 1966 in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles on the former backlot of 20th Century Fox Studios. Fox still has its lot in the neighborhood, as well as its headquarters, Fox Plaza. Century City, known as the City of the Century (20th), was dominated for much of its early history by the Century Plaza Hotel, as it was the highest building on the hill, where the Presidential Suite looked all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1961, developer William Zeckendorf and Alcoa bought about 180 acres (0.73 km2) from 20th Century Fox after the studio had suffered a string of expensive flops, culminating in the box-office disaster Cleopatra. The new owners conceived Century City as "a city within a city" with the arc-shaped, 19-story, 750-room Minoru Yamasaki-designed Century Plaza as the centerpiece of the new city.
Designed and marketed as the "World's Most Beautiful Hotel", the Century Plaza was known for many modern and high-tech features such as being the first hotel to have color televisions in all of its rooms.
When the Century Plaza began operating in 1966, its doormen wore red Beefeater costumes. The hotel was managed by Western International Hotels, which later changed its name to Westin Hotels. The hotel's ballrooms became the center for numerous high-profile events, including an opening charity gala in 1966 emceed by Bob Hope, who with singer Andy Williams entertained Ronald and Nancy Reagan and Walt and Lillian Disney. In 1967, 1,300 club-swinging police clashed with about 10,000 Vietnam War demonstrators as President Johnson spoke at a Democratic fundraiser at the hotel. On August 13, 1969, President Richard Nixon hosted a lavish state dinner in the Los Angeles Ballroom to celebrate the Apollo 11 moon landing astronauts.
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