Of Regents and Real Estate Agents: The University of California and Westwood Village’s Early Years, 1925-1939

• In Event: Power and the Development and Reorganization of Intellectual and Physical Spaces

Abstract

The Regents of the University of California and the Janss Investment Company struck a bargain in 1925 when the University of California agreed to move its Southern Campus (UCLA) to Westwood Hills. This study analyzes how the first planned urban academic village and its neighboring campus developed together during their decade from 1925 to 1935. No studies have yet been done on the relationship between universities and the development of residential neighborhoods in the 1920s or on the origins of urban academic villages in the United States. The paper adds to efforts to tie university campuses to their historic and present physical surroundings, allowing us to view institutions as part of their broader social and cultural contexts.

Author

• William C. Purdy, University of California - Los Angeles