Last week I visited Los Angeles for the first time ever. It was a fascinating experience, and so jam-packed during the 2.5 days I had there, that I will need all week to report about it. And probably a month to process….

One of the things known and indeed striking about LA is the sheer size. The land area of LA County is over 4000 (!) square miles and the population is over 10 million (over 4 million for the city proper) with individuals from around 140 nations and 224 specific languages (I didn’t even know that so many vernaculars existed…)

Since we are talking BIG, I might as well start with the largest art complex I visited, The Getty. I said complex, but am tempted to say compound: the many buildings housing the Getty foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Research Institute and the J.Paul Getty Museum sit on top of the hills above LA, occupying it like a fort.

The choice to build a major cultural institution on 240 acres of virgin land in the Brentwood neighborhood had its defenders and critics (including those who worry about environmental disasters, like the recent fires coming quite close, and the fact that access is quite limited for fire trucks.)

“Moving to the heights of Brentwood was brilliant, because the setting allows every visitor to rise above the heat, noise and traffic of the city and to concentrate on great art. It is, as museum director John Walsh puts it, ‘a democratic villa.’ “Or as another architect put it: “The Getty serves fundamentally as an oasis from the city which is increasingly congested, It’s a place in the middle of the city where you can get away from the city. That is something that occurs in other great cities.”

Alternatively….

Skelley, Jack. “Is it really “Your” Getty?: Architects and planners chide new aloof acropolis,” Downtown News (15 Dec. 1997), pp. 

The most outspoken review condeming the decision of the Getty trustees to locate on the Brentwood hilltop instead of in downtown Los Angeles. A local architectural critic is quoted as saying “I find the temple-on-the-hill-thing pompous, preposterous and pretentious beyond all belief. The desperately over-reaching ambition in this obscenely overpriced, over-designed and over-hyped project suggests a kind of arriviste insecurity in this adolescent institution.” More thoughtfully, a local architect writes: “A lot of us were deeply disappointed the Getty chose toplace themsleves as this remopte acropolis separated fropm the city. We all believed the Getty could have infused an extraordinary energy into Downtown L.A. bymaking an alternatyive choice.”

One might think of it in terms of who has the likely resources in this multi-ethnic city, including time, to visit. You have to drive out there (steep parking fees,) then take a little funicular (after bag search and waiting in line due to limited capacity of the tram) to the top where the complex unfolds. Entrance to the private museum is free, but the possibility of accessing art as someone who might skip lunch to see it is zero. It is for the privileged, who might not feel uncomfortable in what was called “the command post of a multinational conglomerate.”

That said, honestly it is the most beautiful corporate headquarter you can imagine! It weaves buildings and public open spaces seamlessly together and makes them look good even when they were required for pragmatic other than architectural considerations (the size of the entrance plaza, for example was defined by the requirement for said fire trucks to be able to turn around.)

The modernist entrance rotunda is serene, and the enclosed courtyard a lively place with fountains.

The views of the city and the surrounding mountains from within the buildings and from the outside gardens are gorgeous.

The various parts of the whole are united in the use of similar materials, most prominently a yellowish travertine stone (brought in from Italy…) which catches and reflects light even on grey, rainy days like the one when I visited.

Richard Meier, the main architect of the Getty, is known for his use of the color white. LA passed legislation shortly after he had gotten the commission that prohibits white for some reason. The yellowish, light travertine was his alternative path. Here he is in an interview talking about the ten year process of building the complex, the way he aligned the buildings with the highways as a nod to LA car culture, and footage of the construction process. We will not go into the fact that he has been accused of multiple sexual harassments, had to step down from his architectural firm (although they lost NO clients after the news of settlements with alleged victims etc.) and now works as a “consultant.”

Most important of all, the galleries really serve the art well, natural lighting and placement superb (which you cannot say for the only other Richard Meier museum I know, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt.

I saw two exhibits at The Getty on Friday, of which one left me cold despite its enticing title,

and the other will be celebrated in tomorrow’s blog.

And Music? Founded in 1939, Los Angeles’ Monday Evening Concerts (MEC) is one of the longest running series in the world devoted to contemporary music. The Getty often joins forces with MEC and had some months ago a concert featuring Steve Reich’s Drumming outside on the plaza during sunset. It must have been quite the experience. Here is an excerpt of the music by a home-grown PDX ensemble.