Castle of Time, City of Angels

Driving through four-o-five freeway from Valley towards important fancy business centers of Los Angeles, is similar to watching a movie. The movie could be so boring due to the heavy traffic which often serves busy people of the city. Passing the Northridge area, scenes come after each other; the big beer factory on the right, Galleria on the left, big condos on the left, the never ending construction areas near the Mulholland road exit and then the one and only Getty center on top of the hills, Isolated with its impressive tall beige walls from the green color of pines, bushes, and cell phone antennas dressed like trees. Getty center itself, reminds us of a modern fictitious city. It is positioned all above the others and accessed by a modern energy efficient funicular. It is the castle of time watching the city of angles all down to the shore.

The color of the building is due to the use of tons of travertine, a kind of limestone which is primarily imported to United States from Italy and the Middle East. . When I saw the building for the first time, I found it like a huge research center. With all I had heard about the science and technology in the United States, that was not something far from reality.  The postmodern architecture of the building is designed by the famous American architect Richard Meier. The construction took about ten years, but seeing its complexity closely, we realize how fast they built it.

Funicular is the way to the Getty Center. Its line starts from a station close to four-o-five freeway. In weekends, there are several long lines of interested people waiting for a funicular to stop by and take them up to the main building. There are several aged tour guides near funicular station handing the map and information about the events occasionally held in the museum. And then, here it comes, the ticket to the castle. It takes less than five minutes to reach the museum. I never heard anyone complaining about the five minutes of excitement.

Getty center is located on the top of a hill. It was the best location in my opinion until I talked to Dr Mourie Beck, associated professor of biology at CSUN, about the location. He believes the long construction of the museum had significant negative impacts on the habitat of the animals and plants of the hill.

The museum is a relatively young. It is even younger than Los Angeles. However, it holds many artworks from different centuries; from classic paintings and sculptures to the modern abstract artworks. Van Gogh didn’t know his Irises will end up sitting on top of the west coast of America in a 1.3 billion dollar building.

Each part of the museum tells a story about an artist. The central garden is a fantastic landscape architecture designed by Robert Irwin. Doing a little research on him, I realized he lives and works in San Diego, not far away from Los Angeles, but really different. Western balconies give the visitors a sketchy tour of the enormous Los Angeles, from the beautiful Santa Monica beach to the Skid Row. Everything is beautiful from up there.

Visitors are usually tourists and some Los Angeles city’s residents who are there to enjoy a new event. Local people go to Getty center to learn more about cultures, to draw with each other, eat, and talk. Or maybe they just visit to see their city one more time where there is no disturbing thing visible. They come from  Los Angeles to see the City of Angels.