The Getty Center

The Getty Center's estimated 1.3 million visitors annually make it one of the most visited museums in the United States. The collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum on display at the Getty Center  includes "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs".

The museum building consists of a three-level base building that is closed to the public and provides staff workspace and storage areas. Five public, two-story towers on the base are called the North, East, South, West and the Exhibitions Pavilions. The Exhibitions Pavilion acts as the temporary residence for traveling art collections and the Foundation's artwork for which the permanent pavilions have no room. The permanent collection is displayed throughout the other four pavilions chronologically: the north houses the oldest art while the west houses the newest.

The 134,000-square-foot (12,400 m2) Central Garden at the Getty Center is the work of artist Robert Irwin. Planning for the garden began in 1992, construction started in 1996, and the garden was completed in December 1997.

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts." Among other holdings, GRI's research library contains over 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogs; special collections; and two million photographs of art and architecture.

From the hill where the Getty Center sits, visitors can enjoy views of  Los Angeles, Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel Mountains Inspired by the interplay of setting and view, architect Richard Meier sought to design the new complex so that it highlights both nature and culture, creating a synchronistic, organic whole.