Low-slung Westwood Boulevard is slowly but surely raising its height profile.  According to new environmental documents from the Department of City Planning, locally-based Halco Management intends to replace a mid-century office building near Olympic Boulevard with a new residential-retail complex.

Plans call for a low-rise structure at 2134 Westwood Boulevard, containing 64 studio and one bedroom apartments, 5,500 square feet of retail space, and a two-level subterranean parking garage.  Based on information from the Albert Group Architects, Halco intends to market the project as housing for UCLA undergraduate and graduate students.  The development would also cater to working parents, offering an on-site childcare center.

The mixed-use building's design would feature an uneven roof line, as stipulated by elements of Los Angeles' zoning code.  Due to the inclusion of a six-unit low-income housing component, the project would rise five stories along Westwood Boulevard, a slight increase from the property's current height limit.   Moving east, the building would step down to two stories along an adjacent single family zone.  This back section of the development would also feature terraced roofs with significant landscaping, providing additional privacy for the adjacent houses

Halco also plans a similar residential-retail development further north, near the intersection of Westwood and Santa Monica Boulevards.  That project would replace a stretch of low-rise commercial structures with a second five-story mixed-use complex, featuring 71 apartments above 6,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space.