Westwood Village is now officially home to the largest pedestrian plaza in the city of Los Angeles.
On Saturday, Feb. 22, hundreds of Bruins, local business owners, policymakers, and residents and their families gathered for a street party and ribbon-cutting ceremony trumpeting the opening of Broxton Plaza, the 14,000-square-foot, car-free commercial stretch in the heart of the neighborhood that features al fresco dining, live music, movies, street markets and other events.
During an afternoon of speeches and performances by the UCLA Marching Band and Spirit Squad, guests posed for selfies with Joe and Josie Bruin and sampled fare and wares from Broxton Plaza restaurants and shops while children played games, roller-skated, painted pottery and zipped up and down the street on scooters.
The day’s vibrant communal atmosphere was indicative of the ongoing reinvigoration of the neighborhood and the strengthening of bonds between the campus and community, said UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, one of the event’s featured speakers, along with Los Angeles City Council member Katy Young Yaroslavsky and Michael Russell, executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association.
“Broxton Plaza will be a place where UCLA connects, a place that brings people together,” Frenk said. “This is the kind of community we want to help build — one where people do not simply coexist but connect. Place matters too, and together we are bringing Westwood back.”
The celebration capped years of work and planning by the Westwood Village Improvement Association and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to permanently create a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare in the village. The span of Broxton between Kinross and Weyburn avenues, which has been temporarily closed to traffic since October 2024, will continue to play host to UCLA’s First Thursdays events, Broxton Nights outdoor movies, a weekly farmers market and other regular community activities aimed at building the buzz of magnetism of Westwood for the local and broader Los Angeles communities.
“Community building is more important than ever after the fires,” said Yaroslavsky, whose city council district includes Westwood. She called Broxton Plaza “a tangible hint of what’s to come” for the neighborhood as Westwood and UCLA prepare to welcome the Metro Purple line extension and the 2028 Olympic Village.
The new pedestrian plaza adds to the village’s existing attractions, which range from restaurants, coffee bars and major shopping outlets to prime cultural destinations like the Geffen Playhouse, the Hammer Museum at UCLA and the nearby UCLA Nimoy Theater.
That UCLA connection — along with the tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff who live, work and study in Westwood and on campus — is helping fuel the renewal, said Adam Tfayli, president of UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council.
“As Bruins, our impact extends far beyond the walls of UCLA. By supporting local businesses, hosting community events and participating in celebrations, we reinforce the connections that make Westwood an essential part of the UCLA story,” he said. “Let us use the space to strengthen our connections, nurture ideas that will shape the future and celebrate diversity and the energy that make UCLA and Westwood so special.”
James Alba, whose sister studied at UCLA and who recalled spending weekends in Westwood in the 1980s, brought his children to the Broxton Plaza party in the hopes of introducing the next generation to the magic of the village.
“What a great place for the community, for neighbors, for students, for anybody to come out,” he said as his kids played in the mini-playground set up on the plaza. “I’m creating memories with my kids — something they’ll remember when they have kids —and hopefully it will be ingrained in their heads.”
