UCLA La Kretz Garden Pavilion & Event Venues — Attraction in Los Angeles

The Space: We rented the La Kretz room 101 space for a day for a staff retreat for 16 people. The space is clean (both visually and sanitarily), and being able to fully open the sliding glass door was a COVID safety plus. The tables are on rollers, so it was easy to reconfigure the room when had activities that required more open space. It's a bright, inviting space.

Equipment: It's fully equipped with a screen and projector (and they had all the adapters needed. All I had to do was plug in my laptop and it all worked, which pretty much never happens, ever). They also had a large screen smart TV with a built in camera that we used to Zoom in our virtual colleagues. Wifi was strong and fast. All the tech was one of the deciding factors in renting the space since it was really nice not to have to lug all of our own equipment to the site.

The Process: Ignacio was our super helpful reservation representative and he was pleasant to work with and very knowledgable. He took me on a full walk-through of the space before we booked so I could get a sense of how things would be on the day of. On the day of the retreat, he got to the venue earlier than our set up team and put up sandwich board signs to direct our party to the venue, which I really appreciated. An events staff person is at their office and were easy to find if I needed something. (Thanks, Ignacio!)

Catering and Parking We prearranged a coupon code for parking so that our staff wouldn't have to shell out their own cash and get reimbursed. We chose ASUCLA for the catering, which was easy to arrange and had the advantage of being more familiar with the space than an outside vendor. They set it all up for us, with tablecloths and baskets, etc. and when one of the tea dispensers didn't work, they sent someone out to replace it within 10 minutes. The broke it all down and took it away when our meeting concluded.

The Verdict: I've been renting spaces all over Los Angeles for events, meetings and retreats for 15+ years and this was by far the smoothest event rental experience I've ever had. Very professional from start to finish and our staff all commented on how much they loved the space and being able to walk the grounds of the Botanical Garden during lunch. It felt very retreat-like, peaceful and easy and everyone was able to relax and focus on the...

This is one of my favorite discussion locations, because it's easy to navigate and is near the botanical gardens, so if you show up early or have time after discussion, there's a really chill place to hang out. The glass doors also make for great natural lighting.

For visitors to the botanical garden, there's a map of different features in the botanical garden, and a poster about the garden's history. There's also English and Spanish brochures and maps to bring along.

There's also restrooms in the back, including a gender neutral bathroom and water bottle...

La Kretz Garden Pavilion was a beautiful space to host our event. We ended up reserving one of the venue rooms, the kitchen as well as the outside patio. We are grateful for Ignacio as he was amazing to work with. He was prompt about answering all of our questions and ensuring we had everything we needed for our guests. Having access to the botanical gardens was a definite plus! We would definitely...