The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion Center opened to the public on December 16, 1997, and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles. The Center sits atop a hill connected to a visitors’ parking garage at the bottom of the hill by a three-car, cable-pulled hovertrain people mover.
Located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Center is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum and draws 1.8 million visitors annually. (The other location is the Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.) The Center branch of the Museum features pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs from the 1830s through the present day from all over the world. In addition, the Museum’s collection at the Center includes outdoor sculptures displayed on terraces and in gardens and the large Central Garden designed by Robert Irwin. Among the artworks on display is the Vincent van Gogh painting Irises.
Designed by architect Richard Meier, the campus also houses the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. The Center’s design included special provisions to address concerns regarding earthquakes and fires. Bed Bug Exterminator LA King
History
The Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty’s house, located in Pacific Palisades, in 1954. He expanded the house with a museum wing. In the 1970s, Getty built a replica of an Italian villa on his home’s land to better place his collection, which opened in 1974. After Getty died in 1976, the entire property was returned to the Getty Trust for museum purposes. However, the collection outgrew the site, which has since been renamed the Getty Villa, and management sought a location more accessible to Los Angeles. The purchase of the land upon which the center is located, a campus of 24 acres (9.7 ha) on a 110-acre (45 ha) site in the Santa Monica Mountains above Interstate 405, surrounded by 600 acres (240 ha) kept in a natural state, was announced in 1983. The top of the hill is 900 feet (270 m) above sea level, high enough that on a clear day, it is possible to see not only the Los Angeles skyline but also the San Bernardino Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains to the east as well as the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The price tag of the center totaled $733 million, which includes $449 million for construction, $115 million for the land and site work, $30 million for fixtures and equipment, and $139 million for insurance, engineers’ and architects’ fees, permits and safety measures, according to Stephen D. Rountree, former director of the Getty’s building program and director of operations and planning for the trust.
Address: 1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA
Check out other attractions like Griffith Observatory