The Getty Museum

 

Probably one of the most renown architectural achievements in the world, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles sits a half a mile from a house I lived in when I went to UCLA. Long before the museum was built, I would go on runs through the sage and scrub foothills, climbing to hilltops that provided commanding views of the LA horizon. So when they announced they were going to build the museum in this same landscape  I knew so well, I was very curious how the building would relate to the land.  One stroke of genius was to keep all the cars away from the main buildings by using a tram to take people up the hill.  It makes you realize how rare it is to experience a building in our age, completely separated from the automobile. This Museum reminds me of the acropolis in Greece in the way that it occupies the high ground and sits Olympus like above the fray of everyday life.