By Susie Kang, Marlborough School

“At one stop, two buses filled with passengers passed my cousins and me, as well as the crowd waiting with us. Both drivers yelled, “There’s another one five minutes behind!” Not surprisingly, the one-hour bus trip took two hours. At the time, I didn’t mind too much, because I talked and griped about the ride with the person sitting in front of me.
When I entered the main building, the natural light from the three-story high skylights blinded me. Blue skies, sun, and huge white buildings suffused with light. Beautiful.
In our four hours there, we took the buildings and art tours. The Getty’s architect, Richard Meier, based his buildings on a 30-by-30 square, large enough to fit a person’s body, according to my tour guide. Everything, from the walls to the floor tiles, is proportional to that square. Although I hadn’t noticed before she mentioned it, everything really was a square.
While she took us around the various buildings, she said one critic said the new Getty looked like an ’80s refrigerator. I really started looking at the buildings, and that critic was right. With all the squares, the beige, and the off-white, the Getty did resemble my refrigerator—a white monstrosity on a hilltop.
Even though a billion dollars were spent on the new Getty, the best part of the new Getty “experience” is the view of downtown LA, the beach, the mountains, everything.
The art tour guide only took us to a few rooms, but we saw many naked statues, brightly-painted religious books, and interesting depictions of the saints holding books because their society valued education.
The day I went (two days into winter vacation), 11,000 other people had the same idea. That’s why I’m sure it’ll be just perfect when you go. After all, they built it, and you will go.”