When you visit the Getty Center, it’s pretty much impossible to leave without taking at least one photograph of the sweeping city views or lush gardens.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Center, a new self-guided tour highlights 25 of the most picturesque spots to take that perfect picture. (It even reveals a few secret places you might not have seen before!) Getty’s architect, events manager, and social media team set out to find some seriously stunning vantage points to help you snap beautiful selfies, practice your photography, or simply discover delightful new corners of the Center.
While on-site, look for the Getty 25 photo icon. You can follow the path below, keep an eye out while exploring on your own, or use this map as a guide. And don’t forget to share your experience using #getty25 and tagging us @gettymuseum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also check out all the 25th anniversary events we have planned this summer.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
25 Photo Stops
1. Tram Arrival Plaza
Photo: @imkireiang
Did you know the tram is essentially a horizontal elevator? It uses a steel-cable-driven, air-cushioned system to move visitors up the hill along a 3,535-foot-long tram guideway, gaining 210 feet in elevation. Each tram is 80 feet long and holds 93 passengers.
2. Martin Puryear Sculpture
Martin Puryear’s stunning sculpture That Profile was installed at the Getty Center in 1999 and is made from sandblasted steel tubes bound at the joints with strands of knotted bronze.
From the sculpture, you can see Mount Saint Mary’s University in front of you and the Santa Monica Mountains to your left, establishing a sense of space and a place to consider the Center’s mix of nature and built forms.
Designed by architect Richard Meier as a location to unite Getty’s four programs—the Getty Museum, Research Institute, Conservation Institute, and Foundation—the Center’s main buildings are arranged along two intersecting ridges, occupying less than one-quarter of the campus’s 24 acres.
3. Museum Entrance “Piano Curve”
Cross the Tram Arrival Plaza, take a walk up the “Spanish steps” and pause for a moment to marvel at the Center’s “piano curve,” one of Getty’s most photographed spots.
Here, curvilinear design elements soften the grid pattern created by 30-inch square aluminum panels.
4. Front of Museum, Large Aluminum Grid
You might enjoy a unique view here depending on what time of day you snap your photo. The shadows of the trees and the angle of the sun at “magic hour” (just before sunset) can create fun patterns on the building. This is also a great place to grab a photo featuring our “25” sign!
5. Museum Entrance Hall
Congratulations, you’ve made it inside! Comprising six major buildings, settled on a 24-acre campus on a 110-acre site, the Center includes about 1 million square feet of building space, 71 galleries, 22 of them skylit, and 164,648 square feet of exterior glass.
This is a great spot to look up (and to pick up a map from the Museum Information Desk)!
6. Museum Courtyard
Photo: @marietalksalot
The aluminum panels that wrap around the Museum are in two different whites: the brighter tone preferred by the architect, and a more muted off-white shade formulated to address neighbors’ concerns about the building’s brightness. Can you tell the difference?
The travertine stones found throughout the Center—consisting of 1.2 million square feet, nearly 300,000 pieces, and weighing a total of 16,000 tons—are from Bagni di Tivoli, Italy, about 15 miles east of Rome. Highly textured and ranging in color from light beige to honey, the travertine catches the bright Southern California light, which reflects sharply during morning hours, but emits warmth in the afternoon.
7. Museum 2nd-Floor Corridor, between North and East Pavilions
On a clear day you can see Bel-Air, and the San Gabriel, and San Bernardino Mountains.
8. Museum Courtyard, Fountain C
The boulders in this fountain are nearly 100 million years old. They formed in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, from an ocean bed squeezed upwards when two tectonic plates crashed together.
And no, the title is not a mistake. The fountains in this courtyard are named A, B, and C.
9. South Terrace
Take a minute for yourself in this “secret spot.” This is one of many peaceful places to pause for a moment of reflection during your visit. Look for Cardinale Seduto by Giacomo Manzù from the Fran and Ray Stark sculpture collection. And on a clear day you can see as far as Palm Springs, which is 120 miles away!
10. Terrace Outside West Pavilion
Once you’ve taken the time to explore the Museum’s photography galleries, stop to get some fresh air at this fan-favorite photo spot. From here, enjoy Los Angeles’s ever-changing landscape, including the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
11. Cactus Garden
From the terrace, walk to the edge of the garden to see a variety of cacti, succulents, and other desert terrain plants—as well as panoramic views of Los Angeles.
The cactus garden is planted within a circular perimeter. One point along the original ridgeline of the site is connected to the rotunda which connects to the helipad. It’s all connected!
12. Museum Garden Terrace Cafe
The Center includes 345,000 square feet of terraces and plazas, including a 61,000-square-foot garden courtyard and the Garden Terrace Cafe. Celebrate 25 years by grabbing lunch here or meandering down to the lawn for a relaxing picnic.
13. Central Garden
The Central Garden was designed by artist Robert Irwin to be an evolving work of art. Carved into a stone diptych where the stream path ends and the plaza begins is the Irwin quote, “Always changing, never twice the same,” a testament to the garden’s tendency to transform over time, as mature plants cycle in and out and new plants grow and establish themselves.
Irwin has said that the bougainvillea arbors may be the most important sculptural move he made in the whole project. They are the key element bridging the zigzag path and the lower bowl, which are completely different in character. Irwin fought for them with Center architect Richard Meier, who thought they were far too big. Of the four bougainvillea colors growing inside, the magenta and white are the most vigorous. Together with red and red orange, they provide a year-round display.
If you’re interested in learning even more, we invite you to take the Central Garden Audio Tour, available on our free GettyGuide® app.
14. Central Garden, Lower Bowl
Photo: @violetcrumbler
The lower bowl showcases a seasonal display of colorful blooms as well as a waterfall. A full-scale mockup of the red and pink azalea maze was built at the Getty Villa two years before the Center officially opened in 1997.
15. Lower Terrace Sculpture Garden
After crossing the Central Garden, you'll find the Lower Terrace Sculpture Garden overlooking West Los Angeles and featuring several artworks, including the kinetic, wind-activated Three Squares Gyratory by George Rickey.
The sculpture Spiny Top, Curly Bottom by Alexander Calder, is a study in contrasts. The upper half is composed of sharp-edged, angular forms that extend in four directions. This jagged top is opposed by four wave-like curlicues that also function as a base. Although made of machine-cut steel, the large sculpture displays weightless grace. And despite its elaborate design, the work stands elegantly and alone, entirely self-supporting.
16. Central Garden, Upper Fountain and Stairwell
A visitor to this area experiences a confluence of styles where the Meier runnel fountain ends and the Irwin garden begins. Meier’s architectural statement in the form of a two-story spill basin stands in stark contrast to Irwin’s more intuitive streamside exploration of scale and texture in the context of the hillside.
Pay attention to the cross rods at the top of the spill basin. The sunlight from above the stone opening creates a sundial.
The steps from Plaza Level to the garden provide an intimate setting to experience the tactile nature of the Getty travertine, which makes up both the walls and steps of the passage. Here, you might notice the fossilized forms embedded in the stone.
Look up while taking these steps to find out why Getty staff have nicknamed them the “stairway to heaven.”
17. Ginkgo Trees
These trees, a stately variety of Ginkgo biloba called “Presidential Gold," are planted in one large native soil container. The area will become an ever-more-welcoming shady refuge as the young trees mature.
18. Runnel Fountain
Dating back to the earliest gardens planted in warm Mediterranean climates, a runnel fountain is believed to impart a “psychologically cooling” effect through the sound of water rushing through the channel.
19. Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to advancing understanding of the visual arts through its expertise, active collecting program, public events, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. The Getty Library collection started with 800,000 volumes and has now grown to 1,500,000.
20. Lavender Trellis
Photo: @graciegoozie
The color lavender reappears throughout the Center; for example, at the parking structure and in this trellis. The recently planted vines are thunbergia grandiflora, better known as blue skyflower.
21. Travertine Title Stone
The travertine was cut by an automatic guillotine that split the stone into cubes, then sawed each block into three equal parts weighing 280 pounds each. Around the Center, you’ll notice some slabs jutting out from the rest. These “title stones” of fossilized algae and bacteria are dedicated to different people involved with building the Center. Learn more about fossils in the Getty travertine.
22. Plaza Level, Overlooking L.A.
Look east to see the city skyline, from Culver City to the Pacific Design Center.
23. North Overlook
The helicopter pad was built as a fire prevention measure to allow quick access to the surrounding natural landscape. In 2019, a blaze burned 550 acres of the surrounding hillsides. The fire came over the ridge and halfway toward the Center. Water drops from L.A. Fire Department helicopters played a key role in protecting the property.
24. Lower Tram Station
Did you know almost 1,400 people can ride the tram one way each hour? Every four minutes, 93 people can ride a full tram.
25. Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Garden
Located at the foot of the hill, near the Lower Tram Station, is a concentration of British sculpture, including Elisabeth Frink’s Horse and Running Man and Henry Moore’s Bronze Form and Draped Reclining Mother and Baby. American and Spanish artworks, such as Isamu Noguchi’s Tent of Holofernes, Peter Shelton’s bronzenightshirt, and Joan Miró’s Figure, are also featured.
These works are from the Fran and Ray Stark collection of 20th-century sculpture, found throughout the site. The estate of late film producer Ray Stark and his wife, Fran, donated 28 modern pieces in 2005, allowing for the creation of open-air sculpture galleries throughout the Center.
