On October 3, 2023, Metro staff asked the Beverly Hills City Council to approve a permanent name for the station being dug under Wilshire Boulevard: "Wilshire/Beverly Dr." Representatives of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel spoke strongly against it. The Council withheld its consent and backed a different name, "Beverly Drive."
Metro went along with it. Under a settlement the agency signed with the city in 2018, Metro cannot name a station in Beverly Hills without the Council's consent. On May 22, 2025, the Metro Board adopted "Beverly Dr," according to the City of Beverly Hills, as both the official and the operating name.
The name is the easiest part of the deal to see. The same pattern runs through the whole station. Its entrance, the land above it and the street around it all reflect terms Beverly Hills negotiated. The opening is set for spring 2027, but most of what has changed on Wilshire this fall is the street being given back, not trains arriving.
A clause written in 2018
According to the Metro Board report on the naming, the 2018 agreement settled several open disputes over construction of Section 2. The naming clause is one sentence:
"In recognition of the City's interest in neighborhood identity, the LACMTA agrees that it will not name a rail/subway station in the City without the City Council's Consent."
The station was called Wilshire/Rodeo all through planning and construction. That was a working name drawn from the area's geography. Metro started gathering suggestions for a permanent name in late 2022. The steps from there:
- 2018: Metro and Beverly Hills sign the settlement that includes the consent clause.
- Late 2022: Metro Community Relations asks for name suggestions from the city, residents, the business improvement district and the chamber of commerce. It holds fourteen stakeholder briefings and surveys riders.
- October 3, 2023: The Council turns down "Wilshire/Beverly Dr" after hearing from the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and backs "Beverly Drive."
- May 22, 2025: The Metro Board adopts "Beverly Dr."
Metro's policy lets a station have a formal name for legal documents and a shorter one for signs. It also prefers single names over slashed pairs. "Beverly Dr" fits both rules, which helps explain why the city's choice cleared the Board without a fight. Every other new station on the line is named for a Wilshire cross street or a district, such as Wilshire/La Cienega, Century City and Westwood/UCLA. The Beverly Hills stop is the only one whose name leaves out the boulevard it sits under.
One corner at Wilshire and Reeves
The station box runs under Wilshire from Canon Drive to Beverly Drive, as shown in a rendering in Metro's October 2026 community presentation. The way in is at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Reeves Drive. Metro and its contractor have used that lot as the Reeves Staging Yard, and the city says it will become the station entrance.
What won't happen on that corner matters as much. The city says there are no current plans to build above the Reeves entrance. The Canon Yard was once considered for a north portal, and the city reports no current plans to develop it either. Most station entrances on a corridor like Wilshire raise the question of what gets built on top of them. Here the city's answer, for now, is nothing.
The city describes the entrance as a door to the Golden Triangle and Rodeo Drive. Its station FAQ lists the nearest crosswalks at Beverly Drive and at North and South Cañon Drive. For anyone who walks from the residential streets south of Wilshire up into the Triangle, those crosswalks will be the route between the street and the platform.
What the street is getting back
Much of the visible work on Wilshire this fall is restoration rather than excavation. The Beverly Press reported on October 21 that the middle lanes of Wilshire were closed between Crescent and Reeves drives to build a landscaped median, with two lanes kept open in each direction on both sides of the work area.
Here is where the work stood in late October, by location:
| Stretch | Work underway | Traffic effect |
|---|---|---|
| Wilshire, Crescent to Reeves | Landscaped median in the center lanes | Two lanes each way stay open |
| South side of Wilshire near Beverly Drive | Tree restoration along the sidewalk | Sidewalk work zones |
| Wilshire, Beverly to Crescent | Station work behind K-rail on both sides | Two lanes each way. North sidewalk may close, and Beverly Drive may narrow to one lane each way |
| Wilshire, Carson Road to San Vicente | Instrumentation removal, utility work, street maintenance | Off-peak lane closures and possible left-turn limits onto residential side streets |
| La Cienega, Gregory Way to Clifton Way | Street restoration | One or two lanes each way, rotating sidewalk closures |
The left-turn limits are what drivers who live south of Wilshire are most likely to feel. They apply to residential side streets and to San Vicente Boulevard, and Metro schedules the lane closures for off-peak hours. At the east end of the city, final repaving on Wilshire near La Cienega was scheduled for September 26 and 27, according to the Beverly Press.
Below the street, the finish work
Underground, Metro's October update lists the Beverly Dr station entrance plaza, escalators and stairs, elevator entrances, doors and fixtures, glass mosaic installation and track work as current tasks. The presentation also says the station structure work continues through 2026.
The art is local too. The city names three artists commissioned for the station's entrance and platform: Meleko Mokgosi, Rigo 23 and Devon Tsuno. Mokgosi's platform piece is about the people who work in Beverly Hills, and Metro Art lists it as "People Over Profit." In a city known mostly for the stores on Rodeo Drive, the platform's main artwork is about the workers.
The ground-level businesses have been carrying the construction for years, and Metro's grant data shows it. As of September 30, 2026, Metro's Business Interruption Fund had made 11 grants totaling $482,583.45 to businesses around the Beverly Drive station, out of $14,993,862.24 across 422 grants in Beverly Hills overall. That means the blocks closest to this one station have received about 3 percent of the city's total. Metro's free Eat Shop Play program also offers marketing help and promotion to businesses within a quarter mile of the project.
What La Cienega already shows
Beverly Hills has had a subway station since May 8, 2026. That's when Section 1 opened with stops at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega, the last of them at the city's eastern edge. In October, the Beverly Press photographed new street signs carrying the Beverly Hills city logo on the traffic signals at Wilshire and La Cienega. It's the same city identity the consent clause protects, now posted at the first station.
The early numbers are line-wide. Metro's The Source reported that D Line ridership in May 2026 was up 62% over May 2025. It estimated the three new stations added 8,000 to 10,000 daily rides, and weekend ridership on the line rose nearly 80%. Metro did not break out a count for La Cienega alone.
Riders at La Cienega also got a preview of what extending a working line involves. The three Section 1 stations were closed from 2 a.m. on October 23, with service scheduled to return at 4 a.m. on November 2. During the closure, D Line trains turned back at Wilshire/Western, Line 855 shuttles ran every 10 minutes to the closed stops, and bus Lines 20 and 720 kept their regular Wilshire service. A line that is still being built westward can mean more closures like that one before Section 2 opens.
Spring, on Metro's calendar
Metro's October 2026 schedule shows Section 2 construction running from 2018 through 2026, with Beverly Dr and Century City opening in spring 2027. Section 3 is set for fall 2027 and extends the line to Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital. The schedule is marked subject to change, and it gives a season rather than a date. An earlier Metro forecast had Section 2 opening in 2026, so the spring date already reflects one slip.
Until then, the station shows up at street level as a median going in between Crescent and Reeves, new trees along the south sidewalk, and a fenced corner at Wilshire and Reeves that will become the way down to the platform. For the city's weekly rhythm away from the boulevard, see our piece on how Beverly Hills runs on a different clock than Rodeo Drive. For a wider view of the city, start with our Beverly Hills neighborhood guide.
If you own near Wilshire and want to talk about how the Beverly Dr station could figure in your plans as opening day nears, The Kumar Group follows these blocks closely and is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
