Getty Center, Brentwood, Los Angeles
A travel article in CNN about a place that I have not visited grabbed my attention this evening. The title, “A visual feast for a bargain,” also helped! 
There is no charge for admission to the Getty Center, according to the CNN article, just a $15 parking fee (1200 spaces in a seven-story parking garage). Parking is free after 5 PM on Saturdays, when the museum is open until 9, and for special events. Audio tours of the Getty Center are $5.
The hilltop Getty Center in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California is one of the two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum (the other is the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California).
The Getty Center, architected by Richard Meier, sits on a campus of 24 acres (97,000 m²) on a 110-acre (0.45 km²) site in the Santa Monica Mountains above Interstate 405, surrounded by 600 acres (2.4 km²) kept in a natural state. The top of the hill is 900 feet (270 m) above I-405, and on a clear day it is possible to see the Los Angeles skyline, the San Bernardino Mountains to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west! The buildings are made from concrete and steel with a cladding of aluminum or travertine (1.2 million square feet of beige Italian travertine – many of the stones from Bagni di Tivoli, Italy, are marked with fossilized feathers, leaves, and branches). The Center, which originally had an estimated total project cost of $350 million in 1990, later was estimated at $1.3 billion.
Richaard Meier overlayed two grids upon the two naturally occurring ridges of the site, which diverge at a 22.5-degree angle. The galleries lie along one axis and the administrative buildings, along the other. The primary grid structure is a 30-inch (760-mm) square. Most structural elements of walls and floors are 30-inch squares or some derivative of them.
The Center is well known for its architecture, gardens and views of Los Angeles (the Wikipedia article includes a nearly 180-degree view panoramic photo taken on an exceptionally clear day). In addition to the museum, the Center’s buildings house the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which owns and operates the Center.
The collection on display at the Getty Center includes “pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs.” Paintings include:
- Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) by Paul Gauguin (1892)
- Irises by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)
- Portrait of a Halberdier by Pontormo (1528-1530)
- A copy of Portrait of Louis XIV, which measures 114 x 62-5/8 inches, by the workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud (after 1701)
The Wikipedia article describes the five pavilions of the museum as well as the Cental Garden. During the construction of the Center, the Northridge earthquake struck in 1994 and produced “disturbing hairline cracks… in the welds and plated joints of the steel framework.” After earthquake retrofitting, the Centers building are now believed to be able to withstand a magnitude 7.5 (1, 2) quake.
-Bill at
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