Bigger day out · Los Angeles
The Getty Center
Art museum and gardens on a hilltop above Brentwood.
The story
The Getty Center sits high on a hill in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, a campus of the Getty Museum and other Getty Trust programs.3 The Getty presents art spanning the Middle Ages to the present, surrounded by modern buildings and gardens.1
Riding up from the garage, you arrive at a hilltop world of travertine, fountains and views.3 On a clear day the panorama stretches from the Los Angeles skyline to the Pacific Ocean and the mountains to the east.3
History
The Getty Museum began in J Paul Getty's house in Pacific Palisades in 1954, and he later added a museum wing.3 In the 1970s he built a replica of an Italian villa on the property to better house his collection, and it opened in 1974.3 When he died in 1976, the whole property passed to the Getty Trust to be used as a museum.3
Over time the collection outgrew that site, now called the Getty Villa, and the Getty looked for a place easier for Los Angeles to reach.3 In 1983 came the announcement of a land purchase in the Santa Monica Mountains above Interstate 405, a 110-acre site holding a 24-acre campus.3
Architect Richard Meier was chosen to design the center in 1984, and construction began in August 1989.3 The center opened to the public on December 16, 1997.3 Its design included special provisions to address concerns about earthquakes and fires.3
What to see and do
A day here mixes art, architecture, gardens and city views, and the Getty describes the Center as a museum with something for everyone.1
The collection
Visitors can explore European art created before 1900, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, decorative arts and illuminated manuscripts, along with a global photography collection spanning the 1830s through today.3
Irises
Among the artworks on display is Vincent van Gogh's painting Irises.3
The Central Garden
The 134,000-square-foot Central Garden is the work of artist Robert Irwin, with water flowing from a fountain down to an azalea pool and more than 500 varieties of plant material.3
Outdoor sculpture
Sculpture also appears outdoors on terraces, balconies and in the gardens.3
The GettyGuide app
The Getty offers a free app as a personal guide to the museums.1
Dining and shopping
The Center has dining options from elegant meals to casual snacks, plus a museum store with books, jewelry and toys inspired by art and architecture.1
Why it matters
The J Paul Getty Museum operates two sites: the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, which sits in Pacific Palisades.3 Around 1.8 million people come each year, and the grounds are also home to the J Paul Getty Trust along with the Getty Foundation, Getty Conservation Institute and Getty Research Institute.3 The Getty Research Institute's library holds over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture.3
Getting there
The Getty Center is at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049, in the Brentwood neighborhood.1,3 Visitors park at the bottom of the hill and ride the cable-pulled Getty Center Tram up to the museum.3
Sources
Written by TravelHere from the sources below (draft deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash, polish z-ai/glm-5.3, final anthropic/claude-opus-5.5).
- 1. The Getty Center: The Getty Center (opens in a new tab) (retrieved 2026-10-16)
- 3. Wikipedia: Getty Center (opens in a new tab) (retrieved 2026-10-16)
