Fox Plaza (Los Angeles)

2121 Avenue of the Stars, formerly known as Fox Plaza, is a 34-story, 493-foot (150 m) skyscraper in Century City, Los Angeles, California.[5] It is owned by the Orange County–based Irvine Company.[6]

2121 Avenue of the Stars
Fox Plaza in December 2005
Alternative names20th Century Studios Plaza
General information
TypeCommercial offices
Architectural stylePostmodern
Location2121 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, California
Coordinates34.055282°N 118.412804°W / 34.055282; -118.412804
Construction started1985 (1985)
Completed1987
OwnerIrvine Company LLC
Height
Roof150 m (490 ft)
Technical details
Floor count34
Floor area90,115 m2 (969,990 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)Johnson, Fain and Pereira Associates
Structural engineerJohn A. Martin & Associates
Main contractorAl Cohen Construction
References
[1][2][3][4]

History

Completed in 1987,[7] the building's architects were Scott Johnson, Bill Fain, and William L. Pereira.[8] Fox Plaza is the last building that Pereira designed before his death in 1985, and he did not live to see it open.

Former President Ronald Reagan had his offices on the 34th floor of the building for several years after leaving public office.[9] As of 2019, the 34th floor was occupied by 20th Century Studios.[10]

Design

The outer exterior of the building contains rust-red granite and glass panels.

Fox Plaza features a unique HVAC system where a large vertical air shaft is located in the core of the building. The air shaft begins below the building as an outdoor, cooler air intake pushing air to each floor's fan room, and on the roof is located an exhaust for stale air. Such system design utilizes stack effect.[11][12]

Filming location

In a 2018 tour for Variety, the chief engineer of the building noted how the Fox Plaza has a large number of redundancies in its design, and he speculates that it's because it was intended to be used as a filming location.[13]

The building has been featured in at least four major motion pictures released by Fox. Its most famous appearance was in the 1988 action film Die Hard, where it portrayed the fictional Nakatomi Plaza (also known as Nakatomi Tower), a building owned by a fictional Japanese conglomerate.[13] The damaged version of the tower was made via a scale model special effect. In 2018, to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary, a screening was held outside with the building in the background.[14]

The plaza and a neighbouring building are the main setting for the 1994 comedy Airheads where fictional radio station KPPX is located.[15][16] Fox Plaza was also one of the buildings brought down at the end of Fight Club.[17] The building is also used for the corporate offices of Chimera Gas in the surrealistic road movie Motorama and is also portrayed as the headquarters for Spencer Publications on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. The building plays an important role in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "99", in which detective Jake Peralta insists on visiting the building due to its role in Die Hard and causes his squad to miss their return flight to New York City.[18]

The exterior of the building was used in the 1987 Charlie Sheen film No Man's Land, in the 2001 episode of The X-Files, "Essence", and in the 1989 film Lethal Weapon 2.

The building can also be seen from the InterContinental hotel pool across the street in the "Sunblock 2000" TV ad in Robocop 2 (1990).

See also

References
  1. "Fox Plaza". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
  2. "Emporis building ID 116576". Emporis. Archived from the original on February 14, 2016.
  3. "Fox Plaza". SkyscraperPage.
  4. Fox Plaza at Structurae
  5. "Fox Plaza - Office Building for Rent - Los Angeles, CA". Irvine Company. Archived from the original on 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  6. "Irvine Company's Fox Plaza Captures Prestigious Regional Industry Award". Irvine Company. Archived from the original on 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  7. De Wolfe, Evelyn (1987-02-01). "Fox Plaza Adds Color to Westside's Skyline". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  8. Kaplan, Sam Hall (1987-09-20). "Fox Plaza: Nice Style, Poor Design". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  9. Lewis, Andy (26 September 2013). "Inside Ronald Reagan's 'Die Hard' Office in Century City". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  10. "Fox Plaza". Los Angeles Conservancy. Archived from the original on 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  11. "Large-Building HVAC Systems". Industrial-Electronics.com. Retrieved 2021-01-16. An unusual example of vertical air distribution at the core is shown in Fig. 10. The Fox Plaza, Los Angeles, office building's unique features include both fan rooms on each floor and a large central vertical air shaft. This air shaft begins at the bottom as a fresh air intake to each floor and tapers to become, at the top, an exhaust (heated) air outlet from each floor. Thus, the stack effect is utilized to help supply fresh and exhaust stale air from a large building, with help from small supply fans at each floor.
  12. Grondzik, Walter T.; Kwok, Alison G. (2014). Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings (12th ed.). Wiley. pp. 507–509. ISBN 978-1118615904.
  13. Tapley, Kristopher (2018-07-29). "'Die Hard' Celebrates 30th Anniversary with Outdoor 'Nakatomi Tower' Screening". Variety. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  14. Tapley, Kristopher (29 July 2018). "'Die Hard' Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Outdoor 'Nakatomi Tower' Screening". Variety. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  15. Airheads (1994) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-04-08
  16. "Airheads". Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  17. "The 'Where Is My Mind' Ending Scene in Fight Club (1999)". YouTube. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  18. Ferguson, LaToya (6 December 2017). "In Brooklyn Nine-Nine's "99," teamwork makes the dream work". The A.V. Club. Great Hill Partners. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
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