Along Valley Spring Lane and Bellaire, the acoustic construction fence around the old Weddington Golf & Tennis site is now half as tall as it was. Harvard-Westlake's September 25 construction update says crews are removing the top half of the fence on those two streets. The bottom half stays up until construction ends. Construction began in April 2024. As recently as July, the Times described 14-foot covered fences hiding the progress from Whitsett Avenue and said they would come down soon to give the community a look.
Inside is a $200 million complex. The Los Angeles Times toured it in July and listed two gyms, a 52-meter pool, eight tennis courts and two all-weather turf fields. Most coverage has focused on the athletics. For people who live near Whitsett Avenue, the more useful detail sits in the school's River Park FAQ. That page explains how public access is supposed to work. Most of it depends on a school schedule that runs mainly in the afternoon.
The school's afternoon is the public's boundary
The River Park FAQ says Harvard-Westlake will generally use the athletic facilities from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the school year. Most of that use falls between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Every public window for the sports facilities is built around that block. Here's how a weekday from September through May looks under the school's published plan:
- 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.: Individual lap swimming in the pool. Field B and the track are open to individuals. Tennis courts are open to the public. The park and clubhouse are open.
- 9 a.m. to noon: The pool is no longer open for individual lap swimming. Field B, the track and the tennis courts stay open.
- Noon to 3 p.m.: The tennis courts and the park are still open. Individual use of the field and track ends.
- 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.: The school's busiest hours. The park and clubhouse stay open. The tennis courts don't.
- 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.: The tennis courts reopen to the public. The park and clubhouse close at 9.
The FAQ gives the general tennis windows as 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It describes those times as when the courts aren't in use by Harvard-Westlake. The lap swim and individual field and track hours apply only September through May. In practice, the public gets the facilities on the sports teams' schedule. Early mornings offer the most choice, and late evenings offer tennis.
What's free every day, and what depends on the schedule
One part of the campus doesn't follow the athletic schedule at all. The FAQ says the six-acre park and the clubhouse will be open to the general public from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day of the year. It also says many features of the campus will be open to the public free of charge. The city's approval-era documents measure this slightly differently. They describe a 17.2-acre site with 5.4 acres of publicly accessible open space. They also say reservations for the recreational facilities would be offered with no fee for public use.
The rest comes with conditions. The FAQ says the athletic fields, pool and gymnasium will be available to community groups when Harvard-Westlake athletes aren't using them. The Times mentions community rooms. The FAQ's public-access section doesn't list them among the spaces open to the public. The Times also expects the first year to involve some trial and error. That includes working out traffic patterns and how to welcome the public during the school day. The hours above are the school's published plan. They aren't yet a schedule anyone has used.
Café Southwest is planned to reopen ahead of the rest
People who remember Weddington will know the name Café Southwest. The FAQ says the café closed during construction and will reopen in the remodeled clubhouse with a new kitchen and more seating. It also says the construction team planned to finish the clubhouse first, hoping to reopen the clubhouse and café before the rest of the campus. The Times describes the café as privately run but doesn't name the operator.
The clubhouse follows the same 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. hours as the park. That makes the café the one indoor space on the site with no stated dependence on the athletic calendar.
How you'll get in
The FAQ lists two public entrances: one from the Zev Yaroslavsky LA River Greenway and the main pedestrian and visitor entrance on Whitsett Avenue. The Greenway entrance links the park to an existing route. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority describes the Greenway segment as a half-mile trail on the north side of the river for walkers and joggers. That listing doesn't give hours for the trail.
A November 2023 letter from Council District 4 described a continuous, ADA-accessible walkway with wayfinding signs, running from the Whitsett and Valleyheart area to the Greenway entrance. One connection from earlier plans was dropped. The city's appeal response says the proposed ramp from Coldwater Canyon to the Greenway won't be built. If you come from the Coldwater side, the Greenway and Whitsett entrances are the ways in.
Whitsett this fall, from Valley Spring to Station 78
The work affecting people right now is on the sidewalk. Harvard-Westlake posted that work on Whitsett and Valley Spring Lane would start September 12. It includes a partial lane closure on Whitsett from Valley Spring to the fire station, plus a full closure of the Whitsett sidewalk, using concrete K-rails. The original estimate was about two months. The September 25 update said the work would continue for about six more weeks. That points to roughly early November. Crews were also starting to form and pour about half of the new sidewalk.
The school's notice explains what the closure is for. The old sidewalk had been uprooted by 12 inches or more in places. The new sidewalk shifts farther onto Harvard-Westlake's property, which widens the public right-of-way. The planted strip between sidewalk and street gets wider, with new landscaping that includes native oak trees. The site's construction hotline is 818-487-6611, and the email is [email protected].
The lane closure ends at a building with its own event this month. LAFD Station 78, at 4041 Whitsett Avenue, is holding its third annual open house and firefighters' pancake breakfast on Saturday, October 17, from 8 to 11 a.m. Tickets are listed at $10. The next morning, Sunday, October 18, the Studio City Neighborhood Council has a community cleanup on its October calendar from 8:30 to 11 a.m. The listing doesn't give a meeting point, so check with the council before you go. The council has described these cleanups as a monthly series. On the Greenway side, a September 9 council notice listed river cleanup and the removal of invasive palms along the Zev Greenway as committee discussion topics.
Beeman Park is also partly closed. A September 11 council update said the playground was temporarily closed for Bureau of Engineering work near the recreation center ramp, with a temporary alternate ramp planned. The wider park project is expected to finish in early 2027. That's the same target reported for River Park.
When the gates actually open
Harvard-Westlake can finish construction, but it can't set the opening date. The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle reported on August 25 that River Park's opening had moved from fall 2026 to early 2027. Final inspections and the certificate of occupancy were still waiting on city approval. Head of Upper School Beth Slattery explained the timing to the Chronicle:
"Other than the permitting process, which isn't something we can control, things are on track. The city decides when it gives approval for certain things, so River Park's opening will probably be sometime towards the end of this calendar year or the beginning of next."
The Los Angeles Times reported the same early-2027 target for activity to begin on the site. The most recent school update, dated September 25, reports work on Field A's metal bleachers, final tree trimming around the whole site and the fence coming down partway. It doesn't mention passed inspections, an issued certificate of occupancy or a public preview date. As of October 5, 2026, the construction updates page is the best place to watch for the first public morning at River Park.
Questions about how the new park and the Whitsett improvements could affect a specific street are part of our ongoing conversations with Studio City homeowners. If you'd like to talk it through, Marlyse Scherr is glad to share what she's watching on the Valley Spring and Whitsett blocks. Let's Connect.
