What is so great about 30 inches square?

Fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and French, our architecture mentor, Elana,
opened our eyes to the shapes and materials around us at the Getty Center. 

We met under the sycamore tree on the plaza, joining a few others who wanted to understand something about the dramatic architecture of this wonderful place. Earlier, we wound our way down Sunset Boulevard, stopping briefly at the Doheny Mansion, then found ourselves in a confusing construction detour at Sunset and Sepulveda.

30x30 travertine
"Guillotine Cut"

But our driver Bill persevered and we soon found ourselves deep inside the mountain parking ramp. Or would that be parking hole. Anyway, it was a quick trip on a robotic tram to the hilltop where we figured the first order of business would have to be the Architecture Tour. 

Elana provided a snappy commentary and one of the first things she asked us to notice was the size and purpose of the square shapes we saw everywhere. Just about everything, we learned, measures 30 inches by 30 inches -- or multiples thereof. The buildings are of travertine -- smooth and rough -- and baked aluminium and glass.

Perhaps the most important element of the Getty Center is its hilltop site in the Santa Monica Mountains, just off the San Diego Freeway. From there, visitors can take in prominent features of the Los Angeles landscape--the Pacific Ocean, the San Gabriel Mountains, the vast street-grid of the city. Inspired by this interplay, architect Richard Meier sought to design the new complex so that it highlights both nature and culture, creating a synchronistic, organic whole.

See how the 30x30 squares help define human proportion?
(He's big. She's not.)

When approached from the south, the modernist complex appears almost to grow from the 110-acre hillside. Two three-car, computer-operated trams ferry visitors from a street-level parking facility to the hilltop site. The campus, clad largely in cleft-cut, Italian travertine, is organized around a central arrival plaza, and offers framed panoramic views of the city. Curvilinear design elements, like the circular Museum Entrance Hall and the canopy over the Harold M. Williams Auditorium entrance call to mind the Baroque. But there is also a bright openness to the complex, a horizontality reminiscent of the work of such Southern California modernists as Rudolf Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Yup. 30 by 30 inch windows looking out at Bel Air.

Elena told us that Richard Meier took many of his cues for the design from the site itself, and from the Trust planning team’s desire to retain the sense of openness found at the original Getty Museum in Malibu. The Getty Center’s six buildings follow a natural ridge in the hilltop. Working with this natural topography, Meier positioned the Center’s buildings at sites that are relatively public or private in character, depending on the needs of each. He also suggested a connection between the organization of the Center and the layout of the city’s grid. All six buildings are as open as security and conservation needs will allow.
Galleries, offices, and the Auditorium lead out to courtyards and terraces; all offices receive natural light. Because the Getty’s neighbors requested that the complex be no more than two stories above grade, all of the buildings extend underground and are linked with subterranean corridors that facilitate the moving of artwork and other materials.

We looked in amazement at one of the stone blocks containing a fossilized feather. Elana said it could be anywhere from 8,000 to 80,000 years old.

Yum.

The use of stone--1.2 million square feet of it--is perhaps one of the most remarked-upon elements of the new complex. This beige-colored, cleft-cut, textured, fossilized travertine catches the bright Southern California daylight, reflecting sharply during morning hours and emitting a honeyed warmth in the afternoon. The weather was perfect for a day on the plaza, Elana said, and we had to agree.

Elana used Stan and Kathleen as models to show her group all the advantages of the magical 30 inch dimension. Most memorable reason? Thirty inches is the exact length a Roman solider stepped off when marching. It is a natural gait. If you want other reasons, go on the tour and take better notes.
If you'd like to see all the pictures we took today and a bonus batch of pictures of the Doheny Mansion, click here, brave citizen.

Baked aluminum panels. A collage of five planes, Tension.