Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California.

Bordering the campus on the south is Westwood Village, a major regional district for shopping, dining, movie theaters, and other entertainment.

Westwood also has residential areas of multifamily and single family housing, including exclusive Holmby Hills.

[citation needed] A portion of Holmby Hills, home to the Playboy Mansion, south of Sunset Blvd., east of both Beverly Glen Bl.

[16] Westwood has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) with dry summers, relatively wet winters, and mild temperatures year-round.

Westwood was developed on the lands of the historic Wolfskill Ranch, a 3,000-acre (12 km2) parcel that Arthur Letts, the successful founder of the Broadway and Bullock's department stores, purchased in 1919.

The Los Angeles Times reported the news: "Westwood, the subdivision of the Wolfskill Ranch, 3,300 acres (13 km2) of scenic territory between the city and Santa Monica, is to be opened to homeseekers and investors today by the Janss Investment Company.

"[19] Meanwhile, the Southern Branch of the University of California had been established on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, where enrollment expanded so rapidly that by 1925 the institution had outgrown the site.

Municipal bond measures passed by Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Venice provided for that amount.

[25] Westwood Village's popularity as a shopping, dining, and nighttime entertainment district continued to rise, with commercial rents peaking in 1988.

The Village suffered a major setback in the late 1980s, when gangs began to frequent the neighborhood and crime increased.

[29] The episode led to the widespread impression that even affluent Westwood was not immune to the crime wave then ravaging Los Angeles.

", Margaret Carlson, Time magazine, February 22, 1988[27] There was a conviction in December 1988 for a September 1985 abduction and double-murder that started as an auto theft in Westwood.

[33] The neighborhood's well-known bookstores and some movie cinemas began closing with the advent of large chain stores, Amazon.com and multiplex theaters.

Even a quarter century later, Los Angeles Magazine referred to the 1988 gang‐related murder of an innocent bystander as a cause of Westwood Village's diminished activity.

[34] In that quarter-century, multiple nearby districts lured customers away from the Village, such as Westfield Century City, The Grove, the now-closed Westside Pavilion, and Downtown Santa Monica with its open-air and enclosed shopping malls.

[35] Westwood Village was master-planned in the late 1920s and Janss carefully selected not only the architects, but also the style of the buildings and their juxtaposition.

[2] The 2000 U.S. census counted 47,916 residents in the 3.68-square-mile Westwood neighborhood—or 13,036 people per square mile, an average population density for the city.

Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur-industrialist Armand Hammer to house his personal art collection, the museum has since expanded its scope to become "the hippest and most culturally relevant institution in town.

[38][39][40] The Geffen Playhouse Theater was built in 1929 at 10886 LeConte Avenue as the Masonic Affiliates Club, or the MAC, for students and alumni at UCLA.

The temple grounds also include a Visitors' Center open to the public and the headquarters for the Church's missionary efforts in Los Angeles.

[43] The temple grounds are also home to the Los Angeles Regional Family History Center (LARFHC), which is open to the public as well.

The place, named after wheelchair-bound Aidan James, is a playground developed for joint use by handicapped and non-handicapped children.

[citation needed] Sixty-six percent of Westwood residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a high figure for both the city and the county.