Getty Center, a hilltop campus of art and travertine in Los Angeles

Getty Center rises above Los Angeles on a hilltop in the Santa Monica Mountains, a self-contained museum campus designed by architect Richard Meier and opened in 1997 as a new home for the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections.architect Richard Meier From its terraces and gardens, the complex looks across the Los Angeles Basin, setting stone and glass against a wide Californian landscape.

A travertine museum village above Brentwood

Seen from below, Getty Center reads as a cluster of low, geometric buildings stepping along a ridge above the Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles, with the Santa Monica Mountains rising behind the site.Situated in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains The campus comprises several principal buildings that house galleries, research facilities and administration, arranged around courtyards and linked by open walkways and terraces.six principal buildings

Travertine, a pale limestone imported from Italy, is the defining material of the exterior walls and many paved surfaces, giving the ensemble a textured, honey-coloured appearance in contrast with crisp aluminium cladding on other façades.honey-coloured travertine complemented by aluminum panels The museum pavilions frame views in different directions, so that gallery wings and terraces open towards the Pacific, the urban basin and distant mountain ranges, while internal courtyards provide sheltered outdoor rooms within the stone ensemble.

European art, photography and a central garden

Getty Center is one of two sites of the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the hilltop complex holds collections that range across European art from medieval times to the modern period.collection reaching across European history from medieval times to the present The museum branch at the Center focuses on pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts, alongside photographs from the nineteenth century onwards.pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and photographs

Among the works on display is Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises”, which has become one of the most recognisable paintings associated with the museum.Vincent van Gogh painting Irises Outside the galleries, sculpture appears on terraces and in planted areas, and the large Central Garden designed by artist Robert Irwin forms a landscape piece at the heart of the campus, with paths, water features and carefully shaped planting leading visitors from the upper buildings down towards a bowl of trees and shrubs.Central Garden designed by Robert Irwin

Designing and building a late twentieth-century campus

The trustees of the Getty chose a site of around 110 acres in west Los Angeles in the early 1980s, selecting a hilltop above Brentwood for the institution’s expanded home.origins date back to 1982, when the Getty’s trustees picked 110 acres in west L.A. Richard Meier was commissioned in 1984 after an international search, and the buildings and landscape were developed over more than a decade before the museum opened to the public on 16 December 1997.selected to design the Getty Center in 1984opened to the public on December 16, 1997

The complex has been described as a modernist facility on a hilltop, with gallery pavilions and other structures largely clad in travertine stone and white metal panels, forming a unified architectural language across the campus.modernist facility on a hilltoptravertine and white metal panels Within this framework, the museum galleries, research institute, conservation centre and administrative offices occupy different buildings, but share plazas, gardens and circulation routes that tie the programme together as a single campus of art, scholarship and public space.collection and educational facilities

Visiting Getty Center: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Getty Center stands on a hilltop above the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, reached from the base of Getty Center Drive off Sepulveda Boulevard, close to the Interstate 405 freeway.hilltop in the Brentwood community overlooking the Los Angeles Basin
• Visitors make the ascent from the entrance area to the hilltop campus by tram, travelling up the slope to arrive at the main plaza and pavilions.arrive at the Getty Center via a tram that glides up the hillside
• The terrain of the site includes terraces, garden paths and changes of level, so walking surfaces range from paved plazas to sloping routes around the Central Garden and other outdoor spaces.outdoor sculpture displayed on terraces and in gardens
• The official language is English and the currency is the United States dollar.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about Getty Center

Where is Getty Center located in Los Angeles?

Getty Center stands on a hilltop above the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains near the Interstate 405 corridor.

What can visitors expect on a visit to Getty Center?

Visitors encounter a campus of travertine-clad buildings housing European art and photography, together with gardens, terraces, outdoor sculpture and wide views over the Los Angeles Basin.

What makes Getty Center distinctive among museums?

The combination of Richard Meier’s hilltop architecture, the breadth of the European collections and the Central Garden by Robert Irwin gives the site the character of a museum village in landscape.