Westside Pavilion

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The Westside Pavilion is a shopping mall located in West Los Angeles. It is owned and operated by The Macerich Company. It is a three story urban-style shopping mall with 150 shops and is anchored by a Macy's (formerly May Company and later Robinson's-May) and a Nordstrom. The mall also has a four-screen movie theater of independent films (currently being rebuilt as a 12-screen Landmark theater set to open in summer 2007).

[edit] History

Before the mall was opened in 1985, the site was occupied by a mini mall known as Westland and a free-standing May Company building that was later incorporated into the mall.

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 was designed by the same architect as one who designed structures for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and had a look that was a cross between 80s kitsch, a "palace" of geometrical shapes of dirrerent bright colors, and a Parisian shop-lined street. 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 with new shops and al-fresco restaurants and connected to the rest of the mall by a bridge over Westwood. Despite criticism, including mayor Tom Bradley, the addition to the Westside Pavilion opened in 1991. The addition, officially known as "Westside Too", opened up with great fanfare and was very popular for the first couple of years, but its popularity soon began to decline as clients favored the original part of the mall. The original part of the mall was renovated in 2000 with the installment of carpeted seating areas and German limestone flooring to give it a more contemporary and upscale look.

By the late 1990s only a few shops and restaurants remained open in Westside Too, and the only major benefits to that part were Barnes & Noble (which opened in 1995 in the space of three floors covering four previous shops) and the 1000 parking spaces that portion of the mall had added. Most of that part of the mall still had the dated early 90s decor on the abandoned storefronts. Agencies serving the community, such as the West L.A. Chamber of Commerce and an infant and toddler gym, soon took over some of these spaces. Westside Too remained open until January 2006, when it was closed to make way for a 12-screen movie theater and new restaurants. The theater, owned by the Landmark company, will be the largest in the U.S. showing exclusively independent films. The Barnes & Noble store closed in January 2006 for the renovation of that part of the mall, but will reopen in the new complex. The complex is expected to open in the summer of 2007.

[edit] Trivia

Part of the mall occupies the site of the Pico Drive-in, which was located there from 1934 to 1950 and is sometimes considered only the second drive-in in the world and the first in California.