uring the winter break of December 1997, I took a few trips with my friends and family to the newly opened Getty Center in Brentwood. (On one of those trips, I got locked out of my car for the first time in my life. Strangely enough, it was on the same day when my dad suggested earlier, perhaps also for the first time, that I take two sets of car keys instead of one, just in case I accidentally leave one pair in the car. This is how accidents become reality. Anyway, that's not what this entry is about.) I took a lot of photographs as well as a few notes on various small scraps of paper found in my wallet. Unfortunately, the pictures were crap. However, the following notes were taken from these scraps that actually survived and subsequently found its way back to school with me in Berkeley and into a word processor. These notes once appeared in my architecture + design page, under the entry for Richard Meier, and now make their home here. The following also represents an unusual artifact in that you can actually detect a sense of optimism and sincere, unabashed gush coming from me. At times, I actually sound like a copy writer from the Getty marketing department.

• The old Getty in Malibu was like Pompeii. The new Getty Center is like the Acropolis. This is something L.A. can be proud of, and L.A. deserves it. The city has been through so much shit in recent years, and it needs all the boost it can get. Not only is the new Getty a beautiful boost, but it actually feels like a unifying force amongst the diversity of L.A. You see so many people enjoying themselves in so many different ways. Some hang out at the outdoor café. Some sit on the terraces to read and bask themselves in the sun. Some are mesmerised by the views. Some, like me, are totally blown away by the Robert Irwin garden and spend most of my time there sitting, wandering, and strolling. Some actually come for its extensive art collection. Most importantly, you see people from all walks of life here, in an age where classes and ethnicties are increasingly being polarised. You even see people who normally wouldn't be caught dead in a museum or other cultural institutions. You see cholos and chachas, gays and straights, hipsters and working folks, and everyone in between. It's like the beach! This is architecture that actually gives something worthwhile back to the city and its people. I can't remember when's the last time I feel about something truly good in L.A. until now.

• The site's beautiful, and the complex is beautifully sited. Like the Acropolis, the center sits at the summit of a formidable hill with views on all sides. With the vast expanse of metropolitan L.A. and the blue Pacific at your feet, the views from the complex are just simply gorgeous. The architecture is even better. Normally indifferent towards modern architecture, my parents even managed to acknowledge how much they admire the buildings here.
• The Getty is like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Like a great, big buffet, it's difficult to savour each morsel and each detail since there's so much of everything. After all, this is the culmination of Meier's career and the ultimate showcase of his neo-Corbusian design vocabulary. Some wonderful moments get lost amongst the overwhelming vastness and scale. It's really too much of a good thing. You'll appreciate the complex more if you visit it several times, especially Robert Irwin's garden which changes dramatically with the passing of seasons.

• Either all white or all off-white! The Getty is only partially all white. Personally, I prefer all white. I like the severe brightness chracteristic of Meier tectonics. I like the white glow that traditionally emanates from Meier buildings. The brownish travertine here often looks kinda funny and awkward on Meier's very purely-designed volumes, and its use definitely compromises the visual crispness characteristic of Meier's work. (Unfortunately, since we are in America, we must adhere to the whims of the wealthy, especially those who live near the Getty who objected the use of his trademark porcelain-enameled white aluminum panels.) However, the travertine does bring to the project an edginess that has never been present in any Meier building. The dichotomy between the rough masonry and pristine porcelain cadding sometimes creates a compelling dialogue. Meier has always been about uncompromising purity and perfection, but the Getty feels more dynmamic.
• The complex and its extensive collection are beautifully lit by diffused, carefully controlled, natural daylight; you're never too far from the sun here. I also really apprecite the fact that visitors to the exhaustive collection can always easily catch a breather and take a break away from all the art by simply escaping to a nearby terrace. You're never too far from a door that takes you one of the many landscaped terraces in the complex.

• What's with those lavender trellises? Somebody really went out to lunch on this one.
• At the bottom of the hill, the procession from the garage up to the tram station level should be lavished with more attention. Right now there's essentially a narrow corridor ending with a single staircase going up. This is not the way to enter the most prestigious art institution on the west coast. Even an escalator might have been helpful.
• Robert Irwin's garden represents the highlight of the entire complex. I was extremely impresssed with the results that he had achieved in spite of Richard Meier. Like most architects, Meier was said to be quite an asshole during the design and construction process.
• In all the years of living in the L.A. region, the Getty seems to be the best thing to have happened to the city. It seems that after years of relentless natural disasters, riots and urban unrest, rampant car-jackings and bank robberies, police department scandals, social fragmentation, and severe economic decline, the city's finally on the way back. The Getty helps to jump-start this upswing. With all its architectural faults, the Getty helps to provide the city a renewed sense of hope for the future. Not only restoring a sense of pride to the city's residents, the Getty also brings together people from all walks of life in a beautiful setting that truly reflects L.A.'s incredible diversity rarely seen elsewhere in the city. Young or old, rich or poor, black or white, they're clearly all here, and they're having fun.
• Yeah, it's worth more than $1 billion.

January 1998