2 Radical Plans For Turning Westwood Village Around

Back in October, we heard about cityLAB's efforts to reimagine down and out Westwood Village. With the Purple Line now officially on its way and locals making an effort to clean the place up a little (and now that we know its origins), it's prime time to think about getting the once-popular area back on track. The think tank had architects Roger Sherman (with Edwin Chan) and Neil Denari come up with new visions--Sherman and Chan's concept is called Living Culture and it moves the Fowler Museum and UCLALive's programs from campus out to theaters in the Village. It also creates a public gathering space at Westwood and Broxton called Zocalo, with a park and ride garage underneath and "an entertainment/conference center/arts hotel 'gateway' complex" above. And it adds seven "slender live/work mid-rises." They also made up a whole newspaper for October 10, 2025 with "delightful period-perfect details, from gossip about a washed up Lady Gaga to film premieres (Twilight: At First Bite in '3DS')," according to Alissa Walker over at Gelato Baby, who contributed an article on the subway's arrival.

Denari's concept "relies on the dramatic effect that the extension of the Purple Line to Westwood Village and the extension of the Exposition Corridor Line to the West will have on the entire city. With a proposed dedicated express bus line connecting these two lines along Westwood Boulevard (from Exposition through to the center of UCLA), Westwood Village promises to become a significant node for not only development along the Wilshire corridor but also for the reestablishment of a pedestrian oriented nexus of activities that will positively inflect the cherished low rise world of the historic center of the Village." His plan caps Wilshire Blvd. with a pedestrian plaza and makes Westwood almost entirely inaccessible to cars.

cityLAB Westwood Village Vision from Harrison Higgins on Vimeo.

· Westwood Village Scenarios [cityLAB]
· Westwood Village Vision [cityLAB]
· What Would a Revitalized Westwood Village Look Like? [Curbed LA]