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Getty Center

Chieh-Ling Yang

            Getty Center is perhaps the most important architecture in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is a unique attraction; the Getty Center incorporates the elegant design by architecture Richard Meier. It has beautiful gardens, open spaces, and spectacular views of Los Angeles. There are six building in the museum. They all built with marble. When people enter to the Museum, they can see the museum displays with curvilinear design element that made with travertine squares. The stone-travertine is one of the most remarkable materials. This beige-colored, rift, textured, travertine can best reflect the bright Southern California light, the stone reflecting sharply during morning, and emitting a warmth in the afternoon. According to the architecture Meier said why he choose the travertine for this project because it is often associated with public architecture and expresses qualities the Getty Center celebrates: permanence, solidity, simplicity, warmth, and craftsmanship. This choice of travertine is successful in the Getty Museum; light color marble magnifies the temperament of the museum. Travertine can often see on many commercial architecture due to itself natural design and color.         

The lobby of the museum is a glass-encased rotunda with deep-brown honed travertine floors and a circular travertine-clad stairway. Getty center used crude marble for the stairway because crude marble can have slip resistant. It can prevent children slip on the floor.

           

         Inside the Getty Center there are a lot of unique flooring. One of flooring is “mosaic floor with Medusa”, According to the Getty Museum website, Mosaic floors executed in only black and white were favored in Italy in the 100s A.D. This floor combines this Italian black and white style used for the shield with the polychrome mosaic style of other parts of the Roman Empire used here for Medusa. The Mosaic glass tile flooring has many advantages. It can imbue the interior with a sense of lavish luxury, and these tiles can elevate the style of any space. The biggest benefit is using mosaic flooring is you can arranged the complex pattern and multicolored tiles. Mosaic is a durable and resistant material; however, they can be a costly material and difficult to maintenance. 

     

Mosaic Floor with Medus

            Getty center also use travertine for the flooring; they install holes in the travertine floor, fixture on top and bottom of marble column. According to a Journal: Anew installation of 18^th-Century Terracottas and marbles” They mentioned the two elegant marble columns on which Minerva and Hope Nourishes Love stand look like they were created on purpose to support these exquisite marble statuettes. The purpose of deep-color travertine flooring is to make contract with white statuettes. However, travertine tile floorings have disadvantages of not resistant to damage. If people have young child and pets in the museum, the flooring could very easily become scratched or stained.                                     

Glass Wall

Natural light is one of the Getty Center's most important architectural elements. The exterior wall of Getty Center are made of glass, the walls of glass allow sunshine to illumine the interiors. They use louvers to adjust the light inside; the paintings galleries on the Museum's upper level are all naturally lit. Lighting is really important for how to choose the interior material, natural light can make the inside of the building look more clear and serene. 

Travertine building

                                

            Getty center use the hard Italian limestone for the wall and the bases of all the building. The director of the operations of Getty Center think the stone gives a sense of permanence and beauty. That's why they spend 14 years of design and construction. Travertine used a lot in the construction of the Getty center. According to the “The Getty Center’s stone seduces” Travertine also serves as paving for the exterior arrival plaza and museum courtyard and is used on interior walls and floors, such as the transitional spaces between galleries.

            There are some exhibition hall in Getty have wood floor. They are usually install where shows the paintings with bright color, it can make contrast with the wood floor, so the paintings can present clearly. It is a successful choice of wood floor because hardwood floor is very easy to maintain and clean, stains and dirt does not stick to it. Moreover, the color in the hardwood floor will remain the same for a long time. It also good for people with allergies, hardwood floors do not hold stuff that can aggravate their allergies like carpet.

  Wood floor

                      

           The furniture in the Getty Museum is fancy and classical, there is an old cabinet that named “ Furiture Fit for a King” made by French artist Andre-Charles Boulle in about 1675-1680. This cabinet is made of ivory, brass, bronze, wood and pewter. According to the article on the Getty website, this cabinet was made more than 300 years ago in France. These materials such as wood and ivory, and of the cabinet have advantages of persistent and durable, so this artwork can be appreciate by everyone after 300 years later.

                    

  Cabinet

        There is a elegant table that made with Rosso di Verona marble, this marble is a beautiful reddish-colored marble. This table is inspire on a classical roman design and use in refectories. This marble was carved that it can also be a decoration material in the house.

In a conclusion, the use of materials and product in Getty Center is successful because they are durable and beautiful. From visiting the Getty Center I learned that every material in a building is important, interior designers have to understand the chrematistics of different materials so that they can create a sustainable design.