Determining the locations of the active branches of the Santa Monica fault in the Century City area of Los Angeles has been the subject of significant investigation and contention among several consultants and stakeholders. Starting in 2011, investigations were commissioned by The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the siting of the Purple Line subway station in the Century City area, with an objective to avoid siting the station near or on an active branch of the fault zone. Subsequently, numerous other agencies commissioned separate studies conducted by other consultants which often disputed the findings made by Metro consultants regarding the postulated locations of the active branches of the fault zone. In 2018, Applied Earth Sciences was retained by a private landowner to conduct a site-specific fault rupture hazard study for a single parcel in the Century City area, south of Santa Monica Boulevard, which incidentally was situated directly along strike from where previous investigators had found faults in the area using CPT and core boring methods. Our investigation involved multiple phases of exploration, including continuous-core borings and cone-penetrometer soundings, large-diameter borings, and a trench across where prior phases of exploration had confirmed the location of several faults. The trench excavation allowed direct observation of the faults that had previously been mapped by AES and other workers. This project, therefore, presented a rare and fortunate opportunity to directly observe faults in the Santa Monica fault zone in-situ using the trench exploration method. Fortunately for the client, the faults crossing through the subject property were found to be capped by unruptured Pleistocene soil horizons, confirming that the active strand of this fault zone is located north of the subject study area, likely under Santa Monica Boulevard based on other CPT and core data.