For decades, Westwood Village, Los Angeles has been a surprisingly sedate college-adjacent neighborhood. After a shooting on Broxton Avenue in 1988, the former bustling area surrounding the UCLA campus largely became known for its quiet, reserved air. This made the grand opening of the pedestrian-only Broxton Plaza on February 22 a welcome and somewhat poignant addition to the downtown area, which has tried to cover the longstanding emptiness of many of its commercial spaces with oversized art posters in storefront windows.
A joint project of the Westwood Village Improvement Association (WVIA) and the LADot People Street Program, the 14,000 square foot Broxton Plaza bills itself as the “largest pedestrian-only plaza” in Los Angeles, which is technically true: while the pedestrian-only 3rd Street Santa Monica Promenade boasts approximately a million square feet of walkable car-free space, it is not a plaza, and Sunset Triangle Plaza in Silverlake, the former title-bearer, is only 11,000 square feet in size.
While the WVIA plans to pay for a year-round plaza ambassador who will serve as a greeter and set up tables and chairs for visitors, LADOT has contributed planters, signage, and a resurfaced street to the project.
The slender avenue, which is now closed to car traffic just south of the historic Bruin and Fox Village Theaters, is currently home to a row of both chain and independent restaurants, a candy store, and the Landmark movie theater, which at the time of the opening was showing the cult classic “The Room.”
A green carpet had been laid out for the grand opening, which was primarily attended by a very relaxed crowd of college students and parents with young children. A giant chess set, a ball pit, two beer gardens, and a parked Waymo greeted attendees, many of whom were lining up in hopes of being among the first 100 to receive a free Boba drink.
Also present was LAMetro, which had set up a booth with information about the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, which currently has six proposed scenarios for creating either a monorail or “heavy rail” connection between L.A.’s Westside and the San Fernando Valley.
According to a spokesperson for LAMetro, the project is hoping to build an underground station beneath UCLA’s Gateway Plaza, which would create a travel time of about 20 minutes to the Valley (a spectacular time savings, as anyone who has slogged through rush hour on the 405 can attest).
Currently, LAMetro is writing their environmental impact report about each of the proposed scenarios: after a public comment period, the project may break ground and open between 2033 and 2035. Meanwhile, the long-awaited D Line Extension, which is currently tunnelling beneath Wilshire Boulevard to add a station at Westwood and Wilshire, is still on track to open in 2027.
While the UCLA campus remains a thriving institution, Westwood Village could definitely benefit from the infusion of foot traffic and enthusiasm that an engaged pedestrian plaza and new mass transit would bring. In addition to the empty retail spaces along Westwood Boulevard, formerly popular restaurant spaces such as Skylight Gardens have yet to find new tenants, according to the realtor representing the property at 1139 Glendon Avenue.
Skylight Gardens, where Stevie Wonder once played an impromptu set, closed after the death of owner Peter Clinco in 2023, and provided a neighborhood-friendly happy hour in its bar as well as fine dining beneath its elegant interior dome, a perfect mix for budget-conscious college students and the wealthy homeowners living immediately east of the campus. Despite sluggish commercial leasing, the residential market has been holding steady. According to WestsideRentals.com, an average one bedroom rental in the streets immediately to the west of campus ranges from $2,200 to $3,000.
Perhaps Westwood Village, which in its heyday capitalized on the popular cultural pastime of physically attending movie screenings, can become a new social hotspot for dining, art, and performance. Many of the once popular movie theaters are either temporarily closed or converted into entirely new performance spaces, such as the Nimoy Theater (formerly The Crest movie theater). The Hammer Museum attracts a steady flow of visitors for its screenings, lectures, and performance series, but much like the UCLA campus, it is also its own separate institution.
The grand opening of Broxton Plaza makes it clear that the urban fabric of Westwood Village itself is ready for new material.
