Which side of Westfield Fashion Square is the front? For about 35 years the answer was simple. You parked off Riverside Drive or Woodman Avenue, walked through an entrance and did your errands under a skylight. This fall the answer is less clear.
The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association's October 2026 newsletter makes the point directly. SOHA president Matt Epstein writes that "some of the most active parts of the mall are once again on the outside," along the perimeter facing the parking. The word "again" is the important one. Fashion Square started out as an outdoor center. Its newest busy stretch faces outward, the way the original one did.
The roof went up starting in 1988, over walkways first built in the open
Fashion Square's first stores opened in 1962. The Los Angeles Times reported in 1991 that the men's clothier Sy Devore opened the same year the mall did. For its first 26 years, shoppers walked outside between two rows of shops.
In November 1988, the Times described the plan to cover them. The owner at the time, City Freeholds (USA) Inc., was spending $35 million on a 5.6-acre skylit roof and a second level. That level hangs from 17-foot-high trusses set on columns in the walkways between the two existing rows of shops. The trusses covered about 800 feet, from The Broadway near Hazeltine Avenue to Bullock's just west of Woodman. Bullock's and I. Magnin were the two original anchors. The Broadway was added in 1977.
The numbers show how much the project was about growing the interior. The Times said that once the work was finished, expected the following October, the center would have 100 more mall shops, and leasable space would grow from 682,157 square feet to 850,000, an increase of about 25%. The engineers also kept the interior wide on purpose, 50 to 85 feet across with columns about 70 feet apart. The Times noted that a typical shopping center spaced its columns about 30 feet apart. The new mall was built to feel like the open-air one it replaced.
Not every tenant wanted the change. Leonard Freedman, co-owner of Sy Devore, told the Times in January 1991:
"Many customers said they would never come back if the mall was enclosed. But since it's been renovated, we get a lot of positive comments from those same customers."
The enclosed mall won over its first critics. For the next three decades, most of what mattered at Fashion Square happened indoors.
Five storefronts that face the cars
Here is what Epstein's newsletter describes along the parking-side edge this fall.
| Business | What it offers, per SOHA's October 2026 newsletter |
|---|---|
| Noodle St | Asian dishes and signature hand-pulled noodles, and "frequently crowded" |
| Kura Revolving Sushi Bar | Conveyor-belt sushi. "Some days you'll actually see people waiting to get in" |
| Panini Kabob Grill | Mediterranean-style food with an emphasis on fresh ingredients |
| BoxUnion | 45-minute fitness-boxing classes combining cardio, sculpting and heavy-bag work, with no boxing experience needed |
| Orangetheory Fitness | One-hour strength and cardio workouts, next door to BoxUnion |
These businesses arrived over several years. BoxUnion was holding classes at Sherman Oaks by September 2021. Noodle St is the newest. In December 2025, What Now Los Angeles reported that it was preparing to open at Fashion Square, with no date yet. The chain's own site now lists the location as open.
Taken together, the outer ring is mostly food and fitness, with nothing you could order online. Epstein draws the same conclusion. He describes a mall he visited in Mexico that turned vacant retail space into pickleball courts. He suggests the mall of the future "may be about restaurants, fitness, entertainment, recreation, and experiences," and that Fashion Square "may be coming full circle."
Inside, the directory is still filling in
The interior is still changing too, and much of the new activity there is food. Westfield's directory lists Macy's as open. CHAGEE Modern Teahouse is listed as open. HEYTEA and Charleys both carry "Coming Soon" labels, with no opening dates posted.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield still lists Westfield Fashion Square in its portfolio. No redevelopment has been announced. For now, the changes are happening one tenant at a time, and many of them face the parking lot.
This weekend, the parking lot itself is the attraction
Every October, part of the mall's surface parking stops being parking. Tina's Pumpkin Patch sets up in the Fashion Square lot at 4725 Woodman Ave., near the 101. It is the clearest example of a mall's outside turning into the place people come for.
Event listings give Sunday, November 1 as the closing day. That leaves Thursday, October 29, and one final weekend, October 30 through November 1. The same listings give hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. They also say admission and parking are free. Check the operator's site before you go, since third-party listings don't agree on every detail of the season.
The prices below come from the patch's own activities page.
- Pony rides, $8. After 2 p.m. on Thursday, and all day Friday through Sunday.
- Petting zoo, $4. Open daily, with animal food for $1.
- Train, bouncer, slide and obstacle course, $4 each.
- Straw maze, free.
The listings also describe pumpkins from palm-sized minis to big carving pumpkins, along with gourds, corn stalks and hay bales.
On Friday, October 30, a second free fall event takes place at a park. The Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Recreation Center, at 14201 Huston St., hosts its Hello Harvest Fall Festival from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., with music, crafts, games and raffles. The city's flyer lists costume contests by age group:
| Age group | Costume contest time |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | 5:30 p.m. |
| 4 to 6 | 6 p.m. |
| 7 to 10 | 6:30 p.m. |
| 11 to 15 | 7 p.m. |
| 16 and up | 7:30 p.m. |
| Pets | 8 p.m. |
The two events fit together on a Friday. The patch opens at 10 a.m. and the ponies run all day, so a family can pick pumpkins at Fashion Square in the afternoon and be on Huston Street for the 5:30 contest. Pet owners have until 8.
Down Woodman, the corner at Ventura
If the mall's edge is drawing people outside, the next block to watch is a short drive south on Woodman, at Ventura Boulevard. In September 2026, SOHA reported that Ludo Lefebvre of Petit Trois had signed a lease on the corner restaurant space at Ventura and Woodman, the former Samos space. Word was that it would be a sandwich concept, with a name still to come. SOHA's October newsletter had no update.
A separate proposal is nearby. On October 8, 2026, Hoodline reported on Cornichon, a planned French sandwich café at 13702 W. Ventura Blvd. across from Petit Trois. The applicant had not given an opening timeline. Hoodline does not tie Cornichon to Lefebvre's project, so for now they are two separate items on the same stretch.
In 1988, the owners spent $35 million building a roof over Fashion Square's walkways. Since at least 2021, the outward-facing restaurants and gyms SOHA describes have been bringing activity back to the outside. Through November 1, there's a pumpkin patch in the Woodman lot.
We follow tenant changes at Fashion Square and along Woodman for our Sherman Oaks clients. If you want to understand how changes on Riverside and Ventura affect a property you own or are considering, Walters | Plaxen Estates will walk you through it in confidence. Step Into a New Standard.
