CONCERT OF WILLS: MAKING THE GETTY CENTER (TV)
Summary
This documentary chronicles the creation of the Getty Center from the original concept to the museum's completion. The program concerns the fourteen-year collaborative creation of the Getty Center, which is fraught with technical challenges, creative disputes, and battles of wills. As experts in the arts reconcile their different approaches to museum spaces, the result surpasses their expectations. The program begins in October of 1991 as the model for the Getty Center is publicly displayed after seven years of work. President and CEO of the Getty Trust, Harold M. Williams, lead architect Richard Meier, and Getty Museum Director John Walsh remark on the significance of the Center. The planning and design process is then chronicled: in 1986, the Getty Design Advisory Committee, the City Planning Commission, and various neighborhood organizations negotiate height and color standards for the museum. Among the design team's challenges: the museum must emerge naturally from the mountains, yield to conditional use permit restrictions, complement the Getty collection of period European arts, and combine Meier's spare, modern style with John Walsh's decorative, traditional one. In a Design Advisory Committee meeting, Ada Louise Huxtable and Frank Gehry discuss the negative impact of the permit on Meier's signature architectural style. Since Meier may not use a porcelain enamel exterior, Getty Trust Vice President Stephen Rountree, Michael Palladino, and Meier search for other building materials. In April 1991, their search ends at Mariotti Quarry in Italy, where stone panels and outdoor benches are custom-made for the museum. Dinwiddie Construction begins digging at the site in 1988 and pouring the foundation in 1992. Other obstacles include the hilly landscape; the fact that construction is underway before designs are complete; and conflicts between Meier and artist Robert Irwin, who conceives of a garden design based on the site's topography. For interior design, architect Thierry Despont is hired to bridge the stylistic gap between architects Meier and Walsh. In 1996, as the Center nears completion, the collaborative process has clearly succeeded in spite of the conflicts. Museum Chief Curator Deborah Gribbon explains that Meier's vision was hard to understand in theory, but that his design elements are perfect in their execution. Williams, Walsh, Meier, and Rountree analyze and reflect on the project, expressing pleasure at the end result of their collaboration.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1998.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: December 17, 1997 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:40:13
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:54873
- GENRE: Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Architecture, American; Architecture, modern; Museums
- SERIES RUN: KCET (Los Angeles, CA) - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Gloria Gerace … Executive Producer
- Susan Froemke … Producer
- Douglas Graves … Co-Producer
- Joel Goodman … Music by
- Thierry Despont
- J. Paul Getty
- Frank Gehry
- Ada Louise Huxtable
- Robert Irwin
- Richard Meier
- Michael Palladino
- Stephen Rountree
- John Walsh