Getty Center
Richard Meier's hilltop museum complex with world-class art and sweeping LA views.
Perched on a ridge above Brentwood at the end of the 405 freeway, the Getty Center is one of the great free art museums in the world — a sprawling campus of travertine pavilions designed by architect Richard Meier and opened in 1997. Funded by the estate of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, it houses a permanent collection spanning European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts from the Middle Ages through the 19th century, alongside a serious photography collection that often gets overlooked. Admission has always been free, which feels almost radical for a museum of this caliber.
You arrive by tram from the base parking structure — a small ritual that sets the Getty apart from any other museum experience in the city. Once up top, you move between five pavilions arranged around a central courtyard, dipping into galleries at your own pace. The collection includes Van Gogh's 'Irises,' Rembrandt self-portraits, Monet's water lilies, and an exceptional trove of French decorative arts. But the building itself demands attention too: Meier's geometry plays beautifully against the California light, and the Robert Irwin-designed Central Garden — a spiral path descending into a bowl of flowering plants — is genuinely one of the best outdoor spaces in Los Angeles.
The views from the terraces are spectacular, stretching from downtown LA across to the Pacific on a clear day. Saturday evenings are a local secret worth knowing: the museum stays open until 9pm, the crowds thin out, the light turns golden, and the whole experience softens into something closer to a date than a museum visit. Parking requires a reservation and costs around $25; taking an Uber or rideshare avoids the tram wait entirely and drops you closer to the entrance.