The Getty Center in Los Angeles

The only place we really wanted to visit in the City of the Angels was the Getty Center.  There are two Getty museums, one is the Getty Villa in Santa Monica, based on a Tuscan village model and full of antiquities. The other, the Getty Center in the city, was commissioned by the trustees after J. Paul Getty's death and the architect Richard Meier won the competition to design the whole complex.  He used metal, stone and glass and it is almost all white.

A wonderful complex with both permanent and visiting exhibitions. When we were there the special exhibition was a series of stained glass windows from Canterbury Cathedral together with some illuminated manuscripts from St Albans.  It is all free but the parking costs $15 - well worth a visit.

The stones are travertine, imported from the same quarry in Rome where the stones for the Colosseum came from.

The Getty museums do not collect anything beyond the 1900s except some photography.

The gardens were created by a specially chosen landscape architect to work in with the main buildings.

The maze is actually in a pond though not obvious in the photograph.

Bougainvilleas in the garden.