Westwood

The Janss Investment Company developed Westwood in the 1920s alongside the new UCLA campus, which opened in 1929, and built Westwood Village as its Mediterranean-style shopping district. The Village, the campus, the Hammer Museum and the Geffen Playhouse remain the center of the neighborhood, and the Wilshire corridor became the Westside’s high-rise residential row from the 1960s onward.

Westwood has several distinct parts: Holmby Hills north of Sunset, one of the three Platinum Triangle estate areas; Little Holmby and Westwood Hills, the period-home streets flanking the campus; the Village and the dense student and apartment blocks around it; the Wilshire condo towers; and the single-family and small-lot streets south of Wilshire toward Pico, sometimes called Westwood South or Comstock Hills.

The Wilshire corridor between Westwood Boulevard and the 405 is the largest concentration of luxury high-rise condos in Los Angeles, with buildings from the 1960s to recent construction, full-service amenities and HOA dues that vary widely. Around the Village and campus, older apartment buildings and small condos serve students and faculty.

Single-family prices climb from south of Wilshire, where the 1930s to 1950s traditional and Spanish homes on standard lots sit, to Little Holmby and Westwood Hills near the campus, to Holmby Hills north of Sunset, where the estates rank with Bel-Air and Beverly Hills. The Westwood Village Specific Plan and several homeowners groups regulate development in parts of the neighborhood.

Los Angeles Unified School District serves the neighborhood, with Warner Avenue and Fairburn elementary schools inside Westwood, Emerson Community Charter Middle School and University High School Charter nearby. Charter enrollment and attendance boundaries have their own rules, so check a specific address with the district.

The 405 runs along the western edge with exits at Wilshire and Sunset, and the 10 is a few minutes south. Wilshire Boulevard is the main east–west artery to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and the Purple Line subway extension to Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA is being completed in phases. UCLA is the largest employer on the Westside, and the Village, the Hammer and the campus are walkable from much of the neighborhood.