History in the Making
Westfield Century City has reinvented this shopping mall with a new-true shopping experience. Given the rich and robust history of the this centrally located shopping mall, with many former names synonymous to Century Square, Century City Shopping Center, or Westfield Shopping Town respectively. The neighborhood of Century City is a rather small but prestigious business and residential district within the City of Los Angeles, California. Once the original backlot of 20th Century Fox Studios, the Gateway West Building at 1801 Ave of the Stars 
was the very first building erected. This was due to a very large land repurposing deal for real estate development, made for this entire district of LA of what we now call Century City.
At that time, the Westfield Century City mall was called the Century Square, which was originally built in 1965. Back then the Century Square’s anchor store was calling The Broadway and Bullock’s department stores, which was replaced by Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s in 1996 respectively. A more of a mom-and-pop vibe was going on at the time such as Clifton’s Cafeteria, 
which closed after being at the South end of the mall for about 20 years, from 1966 to 1986.
The mall continued to grow, and as it changed ownership, mall management pushed for the mall to become more upscale. Just as Urban Retail was acquired by Rodamco North America, with the purchase of Urban Shopping Centers, Inc. (URB) in the year 2000. In 2002, Rodamco North America was purchased by Westfield Group.
The Century City Shopping Center was then renamed and rebranded to the Westfield Shopping Town at Century City, just as Westfeild acquired the property in the early 2000s, they began to remodel once again, which started a trend to attract more and more stores. Tiffany & Co. 
was already present at the mall, but they still needed more up-scale stores to complement this store, with the little blue box as a staple signature. However, in time most shopping malls in Los Angeles, Cali began to decline. 
The internet changed the game, and with the holiday season being the busiest time of the year, it still turned out disappointing numbers within the giant retail shopping machine. But something had to give. With the traditional shopping mall on the brink of extinction, the Grove LA presented an even greater challenge, they began to reinvent the shopping mall wheel with an elaborate experience, they included a holiday tree lighting Ceremony featuring Celebrities, singing Christmas Carols and of course with Santa Claus officially launching the holiday season, as well as Santa’s Village with one of the tallest Christmas Trees since that of Rockefeller Center. This was indeed a game changer, because people would come out by the droves to the Grove, to see such a tree lighting extravaganza loaded with a dazzling firework show. Additionally, the neighboring shopping malls the Beverly Center and the Beverly Connection, started to renovate one by one.
With Steven Spielberg’s beloved Dive Restaurant experiencing turmoil, and the AMC Theaters desperately needing an expansion, with new IMAX and RealD 3D technology upgrades. 
Westfield then fashioned a more drastic remodel, and relocated the food court, as well as the AMC Theaters from the Santa Monica Valet area, to the rear of Constellation Blvd., on the South side of the mall. Then changed the name of the Food Court to the Dining Terrace. This included building an expanded second tier level, to a small portion of the mall. This expansion allowed Westfield Group to move things around even more.
More up-scale stores moved inside the mall, they literally pushed back the lease line to most of the stores, to expand the square footage, the good old days of the mom-and-pop era had ended. Westfield Group made the Westfield Shopping Town at Century City into their finest Flagship Mall in Southern California. Westfield also made a purchase of Gateway West at 1801 Ave of the Stars; old photos still depict the Westfield signage on the front portion of the building. Things really began to look and feel different back then. A new Westfield Shopping Town at Century City was definitely on the horizon.
With the implementation of a new Westfeild ad campaign, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York was featured on many earlier Brochures, Maps and Directories throughout the Westfield Shopping Town at Century City.
The entire Century City neighborhood 
was experiencing commercialism at its finest. But they didn’t stop there. With expansion phases continuing, the mall was still not quite up to speed. Retail sales were way down from previous years, and the internet was continuing to flourish. Shopping Malls nationwide were slowly being put on the back burner by patrons. Mall Management of various Shopping Centers throughout the Country needed to devise a solid plan to stay relevant to the public.
So with many name changes, many blueprints drawn, many press conferences and changes of plans due to community protests, public outcries, and town hall meetings. Westfeild decided to put their money where their mouth was once again.
The new Westfield Century City demolished the historic Gateway West Building at 1801 Ave of the Stars, leading out to the famous Century City bridge, which occurred in 2015. This was the start of a 1-Billion-dollar renovation that would last up to two years. Making of a New Mall Era. Westfield made drastic changes and relocated Macy’s from the Constellation Blvd., to the 1801 Ave of the Stars location. Then they erected a new building to house Nordstrom in its place, which moved from the Westside Pavilion. This up-scale experience didn’t stop there, they commissioned top Architects and Interior Designers for new tile flooring, expanded the second level tier all around the mall, including an expansion to parking. Making the entire Shopping Center pop right out of Architectural Digest.
The mall now had three major anchor department stores, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Nordstrom, along with Gelson’s and AMC Theaters to build a new mall, with plenty of space to house new stores, that were once all empty. They needed to devise a campaign to fill the void. Westfield commissioned Boston Barricade projects to place ads in various strategic areas at empty stores to attract retail establishments as well as customers, and built kiosks such as Randy’s Donuts. This created an extra Social Media buzz by mall patrons as they take photos in front of stores as well as the artistic barricades complemented by free Wi-Fi throughout the entire mall, as well as new digital Interactive Directory Kiosks by LG-MRI as well as new Smart Parking systems, Westfield General Manager Louis Schillace Explains. Westfield even created the Top Secret Celebrity Suites, along with the Atrium, Cabana, Oasis, and Terrace for more major entertainment Events, Movie Premieres, Fashion Shows, Mini Concerts, as well as Food & Wine Tasting.
With the mall having a rich history, from various A-list Celebrities patronizing the mall to various in-store promotions, It has been a pleasure to actually witness some of this mall’s events. Janet Evan’s Olympic Gold Medalist conducted and autographed in-store at Speedo’s. The store is no longer there but Janet has gone on to become a major force in making sure the Olympics come back to Los Angeles, and they will, thanks to her in the Summer of 2028. We are lucky to call her friend. Also Terri Irwin the widow of the late great Steve Irwin “The Crocodile Hunter”, has graced her presence at the old Century City Mall, Steve was very much alive at the time, although his spirit live Forever. Dain Blanton Olympic Beach Volleyball Gold Medalist has also made an appearance at the Century City Mall. Finally is our favorite, none other than writer/actor Gene Hackman, his book signing at the old Brentano’s Bookstore (closed permanently), was life changing. Just maybe yours truly can help write the screenplay to his book, 
“Wake of the Perdido Star”.
Article by:
Shaunti Griffin