The lowest 19 stories surround an interior courtyard to the west, and two towers rise from the eastern portion of the base above that level.

There are shallow bow windows on Central Park West, as well as enclosed solariums at the northeast and southeast corners.

[7] By the 1920s, high-rise apartment buildings were being developed on Central Park West in anticipation of the construction of the New York City Subway's Eighth Avenue Line.

[5][13][14] The Century Apartments was Chanin's second Art Deco residential building;[15] he also developed the Majestic several blocks north in the same style.

[20] At the Century's 19-story base, the building's massing, or shape, fills its lot line on the north, east, and south, and there is an interior courtyard.

[13] The Century is one of four buildings on Central Park West with a twin-towered form; the others are the Majestic, the San Remo, and the El Dorado.

[5][22][23] The building contains a limited amount of ornamentation, which is mostly concentrated around major design elements such as the entrances, the setbacks, and the tops of the towers.

[28] The main entrance is in the middle of the Central Park West elevation and is surrounded by a pink granite doorway with vertical quoins and horizontal molded blocks.

[5] The storefront entrance from the southeast corner, facing Central Park West and 62nd Street, is chamfered; the apartments are cantilevered above it.

[33] Promotional materials for the Century proclaimed: "Towers, roofs and terraces make the building as interesting from the air as from the street".

[22][23] The lobby also contained a painting by Frank Stella, which was commissioned in 1970 and installed on the suggestion of Irwin Chanin's daughter Doris Freedman.

[11] Irwin Chanin was an American architect and real estate developer who designed several Art Deco towers and Broadway theaters.

[37][40] The Century Apartments was the second Art Deco building that Chanin developed on Central Park West, after the Majestic.

In exchange, the Shuberts agreed to sell a parcel on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets to the Chanins, who thus controlled the entire block.

[47][48] The skyscraper would have been called the "Palais de France" and would have contained a three-story exhibition space as well as a consulate, tourist bureau, and a French cultural academy,[42][47][48] The section of the building along Central Park West would have included a 1,200-room hotel.

[50] On October 23, 1930, Irwin Chanin dropped plans to build the Palais de France and started demolishing the Century Theatre.

[76] The building was purchased in January 1982 by investment group Century Apartments Associates, in which businessman Daniele Bodini was a partner.

[77] In addition, CAA wished to convert the building into a cooperative and submitted a preliminary co-op offering plan to the New York Attorney General's office.

[80] The state attorney general's office vetoed the co-op proposal on the grounds that CAA did not disclose about 140 building-code violations.

According to The New York Times, the tenants alleged that there were "crumbling walls both inside and out, vermin infestation, extensive leaks, and virtually everything else that can go wrong with a structure".

The tenants failed to secure a receiver for the building, and CAA's lawsuit against the attorney general's office was settled out of court.

In an article describing "the Battle of the Century", The New York Times called the dispute "one of the longest, bitterest conversion fights in Manhattan apartment house history".

[80] A writer for The Wall Street Journal observed in 1992 that the building was covered in scaffolding and that "one of the period double doors has been replaced by a wooden frame with a dirty piece of glass in it".

[83] In the mid-1990s, preservationist and resident Roberta Brandes Gratz raised $600,000 to restore the Century Apartments' lobby to its original appearance.

Arthur Simons, a member of the condominium board, expressed his belief that the renovation would be wasteful unless mechanical issues, such as plumbing and electrical wires, were also repaired.

[84] In the 2000s, the Mayflower Apartments across 62nd Street were demolished[85] to make way for the luxury high-rise skyscraper at 15 Central Park West.

[87] Following the completion of 15 Central Park West in the late 2000s, condo prices at the Century began to increase, and some condominiums were placed for sale at rates of more than $3,000 per square foot ($32,000/m2).

[89] Also in 2010, a bar called the Central Park West Cafe was proposed for the former Gristedes space, prompting opposition from residents.

[32][108] Conversely, in 1982, New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger called the Century and Majestic "two of the city's most beloved Art Moderne apartment houses".

[110] According to architectural historian Anthony W. Robins, "The comparison of Chanin's Century and Majestic with Emery Roth's San Remo is stunning.