The Getty Center is free to walk into, and the collection sits on top of a hill in Brentwood with a tram running up from the parking garage. Free art with a view over the city is a rare thing in Los Angeles.
We have not made the outing yet, so there is no score card on this page. What follows is research. Getty publishes more access detail than almost any venue in this city, which makes the planning easier and makes the remaining unknowns easier to name.
Book first, because entry is timed
Admission is free but needs a timed-entry reservation, booked online at no cost or by calling (310) 440-7300. Parking is charged and has gone cashless, so bring a card. Getty posts the current rate on its parking and transportation page, and that rate changes through the year.
The Center is closed on Mondays. It runs 10am to 6:30pm Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday, and 10am to 9pm on Saturday, per its visit page. Saturday is the only late night, so that is the slot to book if you want the hill at sunset.
One more from the same driving page: some GPS units send people to the wrong gate. Getty tells drivers to navigate to N Sepulveda Blvd and Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, which is the only public entrance.
The tram, and how you board it
Getty’s accessibility page states that the Getty Center is ADA accessible to all visitors, and it answers the tram question directly. The tram from the parking structure to the top of the hill is accessible for visitors using wheelchairs, and wheelchair users are asked to board in an end car.
To reach it, take the elevator in the parking structure up to level T1 after you pass through security. Getty puts the tram station about 20 level feet from the elevator doors, and the word doing the work in that sentence is level.
Accessible parking spaces sit on the entry level of the Main Parking Structure and are first come, first served.
Once you are on the hill
Getty lists elevators in the parking structure, from the Tram Arrival Plaza up to the Museum Plaza level, from the Museum Entrance Hall to the second floor of the North Pavilion, from the Museum Courtyard to the Central Garden and the Exhibitions Pavilion, inside the Museum Pavilions, and in the library area. That first one lands about 60 level feet from the Museum Entrance Hall.
All public restrooms have accessible facilities, and a family restroom in the Museum South Pavilion has private space for assisting a companion.
Standard wheelchairs are free to borrow, first come first served, at the Lower Tram Station above the parking structure and at the Coat Check Room in the Museum Entrance Hall. Front and rear row wheelchair seating is available in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium and the Museum Lecture Hall.
Getty also names its seating and resting spots: the Lower and Upper Tram Stations, the Museum Entrance Hall, the Museum Courtyard, the Central Garden, the galleries, and the family restroom in the South Pavilion. On a site spread this wide, knowing where you can stop counts for as much as knowing where you can go.
Service animals are welcome. Pets and emotional support animals are not.
What Getty does not answer
The Central Garden runs down a slope, and the accessibility page puts no grade on that path. It also does not say how the outdoor plaza levels connect for someone who cannot take a stair shortcut, or which galleries are shut for renovation on the day you turn up. That last one moves, and the visit page carries the current list.
For a power chair, distance is the other unknown. This is a large site with a lot of open stone between pavilions, and most of the travel between galleries happens outdoors. Sun and battery both count.
Getty answers accessibility questions at accessibility@getty.edu, and Visitor Services takes calls on (310) 440-7300.
What we would check on the day
- Whether the end car on the tram loads level with the platform or needs a ramp.
- How long the tram wait runs at opening, and what happens when the tram is down.
- The grade on the path into the Central Garden, and the climb back out.
- Which cafe seating has usable table height and room to pull a chair in.
- Where the nearest accessible restroom is from each pavilion, not only from the entrance hall.
The five categories do not change on a hilltop: parking, entrance and maneuverability, customer service, restrooms, and dining.
We will score the Getty properly once we have spent a day on that hill. The five categories and how we weight them are on the reviews page, and the free LA guide is where the next card lands first.
