Century Towers: the I. M. Pei twins that came before Century City did

Most people meet Century City from Avenue of the Stars, looking up at the office towers. The residential half of the district started earlier, and it started with two buildings. Century Towers at 2220 and 2222 Avenue of the Stars was completed in 1964 — 331 residences across twin 28-storey towers, and the oldest condominium address in Century City that we track.

The architect got there before the Louvre did

The towers were designed by I. M. Pei and built as apartments under Alcoa Properties. The building's own association says the same thing in its own words: "Designed by legendary architect I. M. Pei and completed in 1964." This was a quarter century before the glass pyramid at the Louvre, when Pei was still largely working on commercial and urban-renewal commissions for the developer William Zeckendorf.

The land was the reason he was here at all. In 1961, after a run of expensive flops, 20th Century Fox sold roughly 180 acres of its backlot to Zeckendorf and Alcoa for $54 million. The master plan had been commissioned from Welton Becket Associates in 1957; the first building opened in 1963. Century Towers came the year after that, which makes it very nearly the beginning of the whole district.

The neighbours arrived later and got the attention. Minoru Yamasaki's Century Plaza Towers were completed in 1975, eleven years after Pei's, and they are the ones that show up on postcards.

The twin towers people photograph in Century City are offices from 1975. The ones people live in are eleven years older, and were designed by a more famous architect.

It was apartments first

Century Towers spent its first years as rentals. It was converted to condominiums in 1973, by S. Jon Kreedman & Company.

That path is more common among LA's landmark towers than people expect. Sierra Towers in West Hollywood, 146 residences and 31 storeys, opened as a rental building in 1965 and became condominiums in 1974. Both buildings were designed for a tenant and are now owned by 146 and 331 households respectively — which is a different thing, and shows up in the documents rather than in the lobby.

Forty-five years before anything taller

Twenty-eight storeys does not sound like much next to today's Century City skyline. It held the top of the residential market here for a very long time. Of the Century City buildings on this site, only two rise higher than Century Towers, and both are from this century: The Century at 42 storeys and 140 residences, completed in 2009, and Park Elm at Century Plaza at 44 storeys and 143 residences, completed in 2020.

Scale is the other thing worth noticing. Century Towers holds 331 residences. Only two buildings in the neighbourhood hold more, and neither is a tower in the same sense: Century Park East, built in 1966 with 480 residences over 21 storeys, and Park Place, a four-storey 1985 complex with 416. The newer towers are taller and much smaller — 140 and 143 homes apiece. A building with 331 owners spreads a roof or an elevator modernisation across more than twice as many people as one with 140. It also means 331 opinions at a budget meeting.

What a 1964 tower asks of the people who own in it

The building is full-service — concierge and switchboard, controlled access with a gated guard, valet parking, a fitness centre, pool, sauna, spa and tennis courts. That level of staffing and amenity is a real part of what dues pay for, and it is not the part that should worry a buyer.

The age is. Sixty-two years is two or three full cycles of roofing, glazing, plumbing risers, elevator machinery and façade sealant, and a 28-storey tower is an expensive place to do any of it. The questions are the ordinary ones: what does the current reserve study say is due in the next ten years, and what portion of it is funded? What has already been replaced, and when? Has there been a special assessment, and is another being discussed? Our guide to reading an LA condo HOA budget covers where in the documents those answers live. Reserve funding is also getting more attention from lenders — the changes to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac condo rules are worth reading alongside the budget for any older building.

What is changing outside the front door

Century City is getting a subway station. Metro's D Line Subway Extension runs west from Koreatown to Westwood in three sections; Section 1 opened on May 8, 2026, and Section 2 — the one that serves Beverly Hills and Century City — is still under construction, with station work progressing underground and street restoration along Constellation Boulevard. Metro's project page does not commit to an opening date for Section 2, so neither will we. What is worth knowing is that the work is happening now, close by, and a buyer touring the neighbourhood will see it.

If mid-century towers are what you are drawn to, the iconic buildings list and our high-rise collection are the places to start, and Wilshire Corridor vs. Century City compares this neighbourhood with the other part of town where towers cluster. When a specific residence at Century Towers is worth a closer look, a Condos of LA advisor can pull the HOA documents and the reserve study before you commit to anything.