Architect Vows Getty Museum Will Blend Into Brentwood Hills

Architect Richard Meier told Brentwood residents last week that a new Getty Museum planned for the hills above their neighborhood will be designed and built to blend with its surroundings.

Meier said he will build with wood and stone and will abandon the monumental style of his previous museums. He called such construction inappropriate for the hills and gullies of the Getty property, which commands views stretching from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

As the design process unfolds in the next two years, he said, “we have to figure out how it’s going to work, how to maintain the natural quality of the site, how to build a museum that is sympathetic to the natural contours and receptive to the landscape, and that responds to the incredible quality of light that exists in Southern California.”

Months of Negotiations

He also conceded that despite these efforts, it is difficult to create an “invisible” building and said that “there will be places where you will be able to look up and see a built form.”

His comments came at a meeting of the Brentwood Homeowners Assn., a group that negotiated for months with officials of the J. Paul Getty Trust on a 107-point conditional-use permit governing size, height, noise and other aspects of the new museum.

Mario Piatelli, association president, said the speech by the award-winning architect “calmed the fears” of the membership. “They (the Getty Trust) don’t want to come in and ruffle the feathers of the community. They want to do the right thing,” he said.

Although Meier’s speech drew prolonged applause, residents of three streets less than a mile south of the proposed site said they were still upset by the museum’s proximity to their homes.

Elaine Helbock, who spoke for the museum’s immediate neighbors, said that they were concerned that Getty visitors would be able to look into their backyards.

She also said the conditional-use permit would allow for as many as 12,000 visitors a day and she predicted that this would increase traffic on Sunset Boulevard, even though the building’s official entrance would be off the San Diego Freeway.

Tom Harmon, a sports personality who lives near the museum site, said he was concerned about the possibility of new roads being “punched through” the neighborhood to provide access to the museum.

But Councilman Marvin Braude said there was “zero chance” of that happening.

Dissatisfied with the efforts of their councilman and of the homeowners’ association, the neighbors have hired attorney Chris Funk to represent them.

Funk, who has met twice with Getty representatives, said he was encouraged by their attitude toward neighbors’ concerns.

“We’re not really saying that the conditional-use permit is inadequate,” he said. “We’re saying that these are details that still have to be worked out.”

Funk said he is hoping for an agreement that would guarantee that the museum would not be visible from nearby homes, and that the homes would not be visible from the museum.

The neighbors also would like to see two promontories at the southern end of the property remain undeveloped and a guarantee that they will be protected against flooding or land slippage, Funk said.

Filippa Calnan, director of public affairs for the Getty Trust, said the homeowners’ concerns had already been addressed in the conditional-use permit.

“Given the considerable impact the Brentwood Homeowners Assn. had on designing the conditional-use permit, we were surprised that a small group of residents was raising the same issues that were covered so extensively before,” she said.

The unhappy residents said they only recently became aware of the impact the museum would have on their neighborhood, but Braude and Piatelli both said the issue was addressed in publications sent out by the councilman’s office and the homeowners’ association.

A construction start date has not been set but plans call for completion of the Getty Museum by 1992.