Getty Center
Hilltop art museum with European masterpieces, gardens and views across Los Angeles.
The Getty Center is the main campus of the J. Paul Getty Trust, set on a hilltop in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles above the San Diego Freeway. Opened to the public in December 1997, it brings together the J. Paul Getty Museum with the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Foundation. Visitors usually arrive by an automated tram that climbs from a car park at the foot of the hill, and from the terraces there are wide views across the city, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
The campus was designed by Richard Meier, who arranged the buildings along two ridges and clad much of the complex in rough-cut travertine quarried near Tivoli in Italy, contrasted with off-white enamelled metal panels. The museum occupies a group of linked pavilions around an open courtyard with fountains, allowing visitors to move between galleries and outdoor spaces. The artist Robert Irwin designed the Central Garden, where a stream descends through a planted ravine to a pool with a floating maze of azaleas.
The museum's collection includes European paintings, drawings and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts and photographs. Changing exhibitions draw on the collection and on loans. In 2026 Getty began its most extensive programme of modernisation since the Center opened, including a replacement tram, a renovated Welcome Hall and new building systems in the pavilions; the Center is scheduled to close from March 2027 and reopen in spring 2028.
Highlights
- Richard Meier's travertine-clad hilltop campus, opened in 1997
- Robert Irwin's Central Garden with its floating azalea maze
- European paintings, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts and photographs
- Automated tram ride from the base of the hill to the arrival plaza
- Terraces with views over Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean
