ashleyrDESMA9: A Trip to the Beautiful Getty Center

A Trip to the Beautiful Getty Center

Today, I visited the Getty Center for the first time. I’ve always seen pictures from fellow classmates or friends of the phenomenal views, especially the sunsets. However, I never actually had the chance to make it up there to experience it for myself. It was a beautiful, warm Wednesday morning and the beauty of the architecture struck me the second I pulled onto the lot. A short tram took us up the hill with beautiful scenery of green trees, and then dropped us off at the Getty Center location. The Getty is much more than a museum. It's also a research institute, conservation center and grant-making foundation. It's a must see! Scroll through to see some awesome pictures.

Architect Richard Meier incorporated such beautiful modern designs-but the views of the Getty Center are what’s most phenomenal. At least for me it is. Pictured below are the photos I took of what I got to see on the architecture tour. (A circular building houses the Getty Research Institute, used by Getty scholars, staff, and visiting researchers.)

The Getty Conservation Institute is one of the buildings we mainly focused on during this tour. Here, our tour instructor told us how this building revolves around conserving art. But they in fact go a step beyond that. They have the highest technology in conservation, its up an coming technology where University Professors come here to learn the technology then go to teach their classes. It’s conserving any antiquities, architectural finds, and structures.

One of the buildings pictured below is named after J. Paul Getty Trust administration offices. Now, James Cuno is the CEO of Getty Center. They have 1,000 to 1,200 employees working here and all of their offices are in the James Cuno building. Prior to taking the helm at the Getty in 2011, James Cuno was director of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Courtauld Institute, and the Harvard Art Museums. He received his Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard. Cuno is author of Museums Matter: In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum and Who Owns Antiquity: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage.

Picture Credit: Los Angeles Times

The beautiful vista at the end of a point was my favorite part of the tour consisting of a view that overlooked Los Angeles towards the 405 and UCLA. As much as I admired the view, one thing I really appreciated about the art and design of Richard Meier’s architecture for the Getty Center are the extraordinary tall walls and large windows, allowing for an array of natural light through the inside of the building. It’s incredibly angelic, probably the reason why I didn't capture a photo is because I was soaking it all in. It's a must see!

As for the land, about 750 acres was bought, but only 110 acres of it is are the views of the Getty and 26 acres is just the site itself. Our tour instructor said that the ridge up the mountain is part of the Getty. The land was originally meant to be built on that ridge where the brick fire stops at the bottom patch. Richard Meier (architect) stood at that location and said that the ridge was too hard for him to build on. He looked across the way and saw a “V” form where he can built and envisioned a tram. He flattened them and built the Getty Center across. The walk we took to the end for the beautiful vista view is the gap, which in other words means he didn’t go out far when he built.

Throughout our lectures for this class, we learn about the different changes in our world, art, technology, and society that have evolved over time. The Getty Center is a fresh, modernized, and breath-taking experience where you in fact realize what is meant by the different types of architect that is unique to each place or design. Just as mentioned in lecture, th connection of science and art is through mathematics. We continue making math and art, art and science. When I thought about taking this tour, I thought about Brunelleschi in the sense how he trained in the principal of geometry and was credited with the first correct formulation of linear perspective and made the discovering a single vanishing point rule in 1314. All though we can't necessarily compare The Getty Center's architecture to that of Brunelleschi, but we can understand that there's a formula to everything and each artist, scientist, or architecture has a unique touch to all of their projects and designs. The Getty Center is full proof of that.

According to the book “The Getty Center: Design Process”, members of the planning committee visited buildings and sites they felt might teach them something to spark their imaginations. Truthfully, The Getty Center has a powerful effect that in fact wow’d me with not just their architecture but even the ambience. It had a sense of peacefulness yet intelligence that squandered the site. The entire Getty Center has a sense of unity where, as a spectator, you feel that everything is connected somehow. So with that said, yes I would recommend visiting this site on many accounts. I hope my descriptions above as well as my pictures were as convincing as they seem.