How LA's Getty Center built a fire-proof fortress for priceless art
Just before 2am, security guards got the calls. There was a fire, and it was close.
Within hours, a blaze near the Getty Center in Los Angeles grew to over 500 acres (202 hectares). At least five homes were damaged and officials ordered mandatory evacuations as high winds pushed the fire from hilltop to hilltop.
The Getty Center, which comprises a museum, research institutes and a foundation, is home to a vast collection of paintings and photography. But in wildfire-prone California, a museum has to have a plan – and officials say they’ve been preparing for this moment and are now putting that plan to the test.
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“We think about fire prevention 24/7,” said Lisa Lapin, vice-president of communications for the Getty Trust.
The Center is designed to be impervious to fire and smoke, with materials such as travertine stone, an extremely fire resistant type of limestone, as well as cement and steel. The rooftops are crushed stone, so embers have no chance to ignite.
The museum’s landscaping is designed to be fire retardant, and maintenance workers do extensive brush clearance all around the property in order to eliminate fuel for the fire. Underneath the trees and grasses is a network of pipes, connected to a million-gallon water tank. Sprinklers can activate as soon as fire touches the ground. “We can use it for our own fire prevention,” Lapin said.
The Center extends over 24 acres (10 hectares), and includes 1 million sq ft of buildings, and 300,000 travertine blocks. According to a blogpost, the steel reinforcing bars alone weigh 25m lbs and the travertine, 84m. The internal walls are made from concrete.
The galleries are self-contained modules – a building inside a building, Lapin said. Special air systems allow museum staff to recirculate air so that no smoke can get inside. Right now, all the rooms are sealed and no one is going in or out, so there is no smoke inside the wings. The Getty is home to one of the world’s largest art libraries, and the same level of protection extends to the library as well as the museum’s archive.
Fires are not the only concern for a museum based in southern California. The Getty has also pioneered techniques to keep objects safe from earthquakes, including special display cases and pedestals that move if the earth shakes.
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On Monday, parts of the Getty’s parking lots were being used by fire engines awaiting commands, and the sound of scooper helicopters soared above the museum – a good vantage point to see the fire licking parts of remote canyons nearby.
The museum is normally closed to the public on Mondays. It will remain closed Tuesday and potentially through the week to allow the 600 fire personnel in the area ample space to work. An extreme red flag warning (a weather forecast for conditions that are likely to induce fires) is in effect starting Tuesday evening, with strong winds and low humidities, so the conditions may get worse.
“We’ve been planning for years, we’ve already been ready for this,” said Lapin. “We had a trial run in December 2017, but the fire was on the other side of the 405 freeway. This one is on our property.”
