Westwood Highlands is a small neighborhood located in south-central San Francisco, California, northeast of the intersection of Monterey Boulevard and Plymouth Avenue.

Muni Metro ran comprehensive train services through the tunnel that led out to the surrounding regions, including West Portal and Ingleside Terraces, allowing the public to finally gain easy access to the area.

The tunnel also reduced travel time into downtown San Francisco dramatically, from almost an hour down to just twenty minutes; from this, the notion of the commuter suburb was born.

[6] The realtors of Westwood Highlands were the well-established Baldwin and Howell Company, known for their emphasis on improving and integrating communities through design and layout.

[7] Working in correlation with a builder, Hans Nelson, and an architect, Charles Strothoff, Baldwin and Howell designed this commuter suburb with the intention of harvesting "efficient and economical design… for a middle-class market".

[6] Unlike surrounding neighborhoods that had an eclectic mix of architectural styles, the houses of Westwood Highlands were built according to specific design parameters that ensured cohesion and unity throughout the subdivision.

While the rest of San Francisco was dominated by the grid organization, Westwood Highlands adopted the system of curvilinear streets, which naturally fitted the steep environment.

[citation needed] While Westwood Highlands was partly an instinctive response to the 1906 earthquake disaster, it was also a reaction to the increasing population trends of the time.

Firstly, in relation to planning and practice, Baldwin and Howell, as mentioned previously, were marketing lots in Westwood Highlands as complete packages and in doing so promoting a lifestyle that was community centric, affordable, and livable.