Designing Getty for the 21st Century

The gist of what I do: I work with Getty’s programs to help them envision and strategize about their physical needs, articulate their long-term goals, and then turn them into practical projects.

For example, I’ve been working with the Getty Research Institute (GRI) on the library. It’s not only about how they store and circulate their books but also about the kinds of users they want to attract to the site. What kinds of programs do they want to offer? Down the road, it may lead to a renovation of the library.

Getty encompasses many properties—the Getty Center, the Getty Villa Museum, our storage annexes, the Chicago location for the Johnson Publishing Company Archive, and housing for Getty scholars. Our complexity is so fun! The goals are broad and varied. At times, my focus is on improving a program’s local work environment. Other times, it’s about helping staff design a physical space that enables them to carry out creative projects connected to distant places. For example, I worked on the recent renovation of science labs for the Getty Conservation Institute. My role is also often about modernization. The programs have changed, the staffing needs have changed. We have to be able to update to new ways of working.

An East Coast upbringing

I grew up in Yonkers, New York. My grandfather was an apple farmer in upstate New York, so my family and I spent a lot of time there—we picked apples and ran around the orchards. There was an honor system where we would put apples out on the side of the road, and people would leave cash and take a bushel.

My family moved around a bit and ended up in Milton, Massachusetts, for my dad’s job as a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Boston University. My mom is a professional artist. She creates collages, paintings, and sculptures. She was deeply involved in political art during the 1970s and ’80s when we lived in Yonkers. That’s why I’m so excited about the GRI’s upcoming exhibition How to Be a Guerrilla Girl (opening November 18)—it really captures the spirit of that era.

An art-adjacent childhood

It’s interesting when you have a mother who’s an artist, how it can make you self-conscious about your own abilities. So I rarely did any art. But we went to art museums and galleries all the time. One of my favorite exhibitions was the King Tutankhamun one that we saw in New York. On my college applications I said I wanted to be an archaeologist, because of that show. We also went to smaller places, like the Katonah Gallery (now the Katonah Museum of Art) in upstate New York. It was a modern art gallery where regular people could actually buy artworks.

From archaeology to art history

I went to Yale to pursue archaeology. But once I got to college, I realized what it meant to be an archaeologist, and I thought, “That’s not for me.” Art history was a better fit. I’ve always enjoyed history, but with the art component, I learned better when I could put the pictures to the history. One of my professors was Mary Miller, who went on to serve as the director of the GRI from 2018 until she retired earlier this year. She was amazing, and when I started working at Getty, I asked her to sign her book The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, which we had read in her class. I had underlined most of it during the class, so, when she went to sign it, she said, “Oh, you read it!” She was so pleased. That was a fun, full-circle moment.

Discovering a knack for architecture

After graduation I worked at CBS, reviewing television commercials before they went on the air, to make sure they were family friendly. But I also took night classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology to explore more career paths. Someone there suggested the study of architecture, as it is such a broad profession. You could become an architect, of course, but you could also move into lighting design, computer graphics, architectural history, or urban planning. It was a field that opened many doors. That advice resonated with me since I had wide-ranging interests. So I pursued a master’s in architecture at Columbia University, where the program combined history, design, public policy, and urban planning.

One of my teachers there was the architect Robert Stern, and after I got my degree, I went to work for his architecture firm in Manhattan, mostly focusing on the designs of single-family homes. I came to Los Angeles a few times on work trips and at one point decided, “I’m moving to LA because it’s way more exciting than New York.” I met my husband in LA, and we had our first date at the Getty Center!

Falling in love with community-centered design

When I moved to LA, I worked at Koning Eizenberg Architecture, a firm whose focus is community centers, schools, housing—very public-oriented design. That’s when I realized that I like architectural projects that impact large groups—buildings and spaces activated by the presence of people. The designs require looking at a broad swath of individuals: teens and seniors and everybody in between, cultural differences of user groups, varying degrees of accessibility. Two projects I worked on were West Hollywood’s Plummer Park Community Center and Santa Monica’s Virginia Avenue Park, both of which were programmed for multigenerational spaces.

My husband, kids, and I moved back to the East Coast, to Newport, Rhode Island, to be closer to family. I was on the city council and had my own small business where I focused on preserving and modernizing historic buildings. Then we moved back to LA for my husband’s job, and I got my position at Getty in 2019. I think the work back East translated well, in that Newport is a historic city that is still a living, breathing place. It isn’t frozen in time. And I think the Getty Center is that way too. We’re an iconic facility, but we still need to adjust to the times.

Bringing Getty architecture and design into the 21st century

When I first started at Getty, the goal was to keep our buildings a little bit static—new designs should match original designs exactly. But things are evolving. For example, we can’t get some materials or products anymore for a variety of reasons: environmental and code restrictions, or meeting improved sustainability goals, such as the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards. So we’re in the process of updating what we can and also bringing in current ideas to keep us up to date with technology and flexibility of ever-changing staff needs. At the Getty Center we have Richard Meier’s original build, which has a very distinct vernacular of character-defining features that we obviously respect and maintain: things like the use of travertine, our two shades of white, and the use of maple millwork in our interiors. My job is about identifying unique conditions and counseling on how we can update and adjust the architecture to allow Getty’s programmatic goals to move forward.

Favorite recent projects

I enjoyed the process of developing the new Trellis Bar & Lounge. It was fast paced and involved many Getty departments. The goal was to create a new experience for visitors. The bar activates the space around the existing trellis and highlights its beautiful lavender color. And yet, fundamentally, the architecture remains the same. The bar itself is a mobile cart, so if we want to move it or try something new, the architectural bones remain.

Inspiring architects

I really enjoy the work of Zaha Hadid and the way she used paintings early in her career to express her architecture. I appreciate the organic skyscrapers of Jeanne Gang at Studio Gang, such as the Aqua Tower in Chicago.

Favorite spot at Getty

I love the Herb Garden at the Villa. I was involved in a recent project to update the garden: we added curbs along the plant beds to help formalize the structure, redid the wiring and added light fixtures, improved ADA accessibility, replanted the beds, and softened the light so it looks more romantic and less like an airport runway. It’s a beautiful space and a calm experience, but architecturally it’s very structured. The garden’s historic focus on cultivating edible plants is both practical and highly relevant today. I believe strongly in the need for more urban agriculture and locally grown food, as it benefits both our cities and ourselves. The Herb Garden resonates with me on a very pragmatic level.

What’s next for me

I am excited about what’s ahead. In the works is the restoration of a 1965 mid-century modern Getty-owned property designed by LA architect Harry Gesner. This is another example of Getty collaboration: the GRI is processing Gesner’s architectural archive, the Conservation Institute is researching the original interior and exterior paint colors, and Facilities is managing the restoration process. It’s an opportunity to showcase good stewardship toward an important piece of LA’s architectural history.