Westside Pavilion

The site was originally occupied by a mini mall known as Westland and a free-standing May Company building (built in 1964) that was later incorporated into the mall. Part of the mall also occupied the site of the Pico Drive-in movie theater - which was located there from 1934 to 1950 - and is considered only the fourth drive-in in the United States, and the first in California. The Westside Pavilion was developed by the Australian Westfield Group. It was designed by The Jerde Partnership, the coordinating architectural firm of the 1984 Olympic Games, with a bold modern design of orange, lavender and green accent colors in geometrical shapes, evoking a Parisian shop-lined street. The mall connected an existing May Company department store at Pico and Overland with a brand new Nordstrom anchor store at Pico and Westwood. It was constructed at a cost of $90 million, and opened on May 31, 1985. The plans to build the mall caused an uproar from the surrounding community over concerns of increased traffic and parking on the street. The community responded by banning street parking to non-residents and the developers agreed to provide adequate parking within the mall, as well as retain the Vons supermarket that existed in the previous shopping center. The mall quickly became a Westside landmark. There was a plan to build a massive movie theater complex on the opposite side of Westwood Boulevard from the mall in 1986. That plan eventually evolved into an expansion of the mall, designed by the mall's original architect, Jon Jerde, which included new shops and al fresco restaurants all connected to the rest of the mall by a bridge over Westwood. The lawsuit was settled in November 2011. ==Decline==

In early 2015, Nordstrom announced it would relocate its Westside Pavilion store to Westfield Century City, a competing shopping center less than two miles away. The relocation took place in 2017. On October 27, 2017, it was announced that Macy's would be closing in March 2018. On January 10, 2019, Macy's announced that the Macy's Furniture Gallery would also be closing as part of a plan to close 8 stores nationwide. The store closed in March 2019. ==Redevelopment==

In early 2018, Macerich announced a joint venture with Hudson Pacific Properties in which most of the retail space within the three-story enclosed structure would be converted into office spaces for media and technology companies. Hudson Pacific Properties planned to redevelop the mall into "One Westside", a new office complex for Google. It was anticipated to occupy and cost $410 million to renovate. After the conversion, the 12-screen Landmark Theater multiplex was to remain open to the public, The Westside Tavern restaurant was also intended to remain, but it closed in October 2020, due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former Macy's department store was converted into a center for tech and entertainment tenants called West End. The of office space, owned by GPI Cos., was designed by HLW Architects. Macerich was going to retain 25% ownership in the repurposed property. Hudson Pacific Properties would have managed the property and act as developer. In late December 2023, the University of California, Los Angeles announced a deal to purchase the property which is located south of the Westwood campus. In 2024, University of California, Los Angeles Acquired the Mall and began conversion its to a research and educational facility. They will remake it into the UCLA Research Park, which will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering as well as other programs. With little room for growth on campus and the difficulty of finding an adequate nearby piece of property, this complex, only south of campus, allowed the university to proceed with this long contemplated research facility. In 2025, an apartment complex named Overland & Ayres was built on the site of the demolished Macy's parking structure. == In popular culture ==

Westside Pavilion has been used for music videos and motion pictures. The mall scenes in Tom Petty's video for "Free Fallin'" were filmed here (circa 1989), while its exterior was featured in the film Clueless. • Tower Heist (Universal) • Disconnect (LD Entertainment) • Luck (HBO) • Clueless (Paramount) • Take Me Home Tonight (Relativity) • Den Brother (Disney) • No Mans Land (Orion 1987) ==References==