The Getty Center

About

The Getty Center is the J. Paul Getty Museum's hilltop campus in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, holding European paintings, drawings, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs from the Middle Ages to the present. The buildings and grounds, designed by architect Richard Meier, sit above the city and include the Central Garden, a 134,000-square-foot design by artist Robert Irwin built around a stream that descends past boulders to a pool of azaleas.

A visit centers on the museum's four pavilions, connected by an outdoor courtyard, plus the garden and terraces that look out over the Sepulveda Pass and the city below. Most visitors move between two or three pavilions, walk the garden, and stop at the overlooks, which fills a half day. People who also catch a special exhibition or a talk tend to stay closer to a full day. Admission to the museum has always been free.

As of 2026, parking costs $25 per car, dropping to $15 after 3pm and $10 after 6pm, with free parking on Saturdays after 6pm. Hours are 10am to 6:30pm Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 10am to 9pm Saturday, and closed Monday. A timed entry reservation is required and can be booked on the Getty's website before arrival.

The Center sits just off the 405 freeway near the Sepulveda Pass, about 20 to 30 minutes from downtown Los Angeles without traffic and closer to UCLA and Brentwood than to the beach. The Getty Villa, the Trust's other Los Angeles museum in Pacific Palisades, is roughly 20 to 45 minutes away by car; visitors who reserve both sites on the same day can pick up a coupon at the Information Desk for same-day parking at the second location.

Accessibility

The Getty Center is wheelchair accessible: the official site states it is ADA accessible to all visitors, with an accessible tram, elevators, and ramps connecting the main areas.

Accessible parking is on the entry level of the Main Parking Structure, first come, first served, and there is a marked drop-off and pickup area outside the structure for cars, taxis, and rideshare. From the parking structure, an elevator up to level T1 leads to the tram, which carries wheelchair users to the museum in an end car; the tram station is about 20 level feet from the elevator.

Once at the top, elevators connect the Tram Arrival Plaza to the Museum Plaza, the Entrance Hall to the North Pavilion's second floor, the Museum Courtyard to the Central Garden and Exhibitions Pavilion, and each of the museum pavilions and the GRI Library area. The distances the site documents between these connections are described as level, though it does not publish incline or surface details for the garden paths themselves.

All public restrooms have accessible facilities, and a family restroom in the Museum South Pavilion offers private space for a companion to help. Free wheelchairs can be picked up first come, first served at the Lower Tram Station or the Coat Check Room in the Entrance Hall.

For visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, free assistive listening devices cover most tours, with induction neck loops and infrared sound systems in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium and the Museum Lecture Hall, and text transcriptions of audio tours on the free GettyGuide app. ASL interpretation is available if requested by email at least two weeks ahead. For visitors with blindness or low vision, the GettyGuide app includes a visual descriptions audio tour, though gallery lighting is sometimes dimmed to protect works on paper.

Guide dogs and other service animals are welcome; pets and emotional support animals are not. The Getty does not publish information on sensory-friendly hours, quiet spaces, or tactile signage, so anyone who needs those should call Visitor Services at (310) 440-7300 before the visit.

More accessible places in California

• Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles)
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (Los Angeles)
• Universal Studios Hollywood (Los Angeles)
• San Diego Zoo (San Diego)
• Yosemite National Park (Yosemite)
• Exploratorium (San Francisco)

Photo credits

• Aerial view of the Getty Center's travertine stone buildings and gardens on a hillside.: Jelson25, Public domain (source)
• A rock fountain plays in a courtyard between the Getty Center's stone buildings.: Robert F. Tobler, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
• Sunset glows through a stone archway on a railed terrace at the Getty Center.: Remi Mathis, CC BY-SA 3.0 (source)