Construction Under Way on Getty Center

Construction has started on the first phase of the $300-million J. Paul Getty Center northwest of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway in Brentwood.

Designed by the architectural firm of Richard Meier & Partners, the art complex will occupy a 24-acre hilltop within a 110-acre site in the Santa Monica Mountains. Dinwiddie Construction Co., Los Angeles, has been appointed general contractor.

The first phase of the project, scheduled for completion in 1991, includes a six-level, 1,200-acre underground parking structure at the public entrance to the center at Sepulveda Boulevard and Getty Center Drive, according to Stephen D. Rountree, director of the Getty Trust Building Program. The entire project is targeted for a 1995 completion, he said.

The Getty Center is being designed as a campus-like complex that will unite the J. Paul Getty Trust’s Los Angeles-based programs and provide specialized facilities for their activities.

Main structures will include a second facility for the J. Paul Getty Museum, with about 60,000 square feet of gallery space; the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities; and facilities for the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, and the Getty Trust administrative offices. There will also be a 450-seat auditorium.

Others on the construction team include Robert Englekirk Consulting Structural Engineers Inc., Los Angeles; John L. Altieri Consulting Engineers, Norwalk, Conn.; B&E; Engineers of Los Angeles, and Woodward-Clyde Consultants of Santa Ana. Emmet L. Wemple & Associates is the landscape architect.