Machado and Silvetti Associates, Inc.

The Getty Villa, located near Malibu, California, operates as a museum and educational center dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The Getty Villa was designed to house J. Paul Getty's art collection when the collection outgrew his Ranch House, which had served as a private museum since 1954. After considering various options for expanding the Ranch House, Getty decided in the fall of 1968 to build a new museum on the same property, in the form of a first-century Roman country house, based primarily on the plans of the ancient Villa dei Papiri just outside of Herculaneum. The archaeologist Norman Neuerburg, who had studied the ruins of Herculaneum and was an authority on Roman domestic architecture, was retained as a consultant for the project. The Santa Monica architectural firm Langdon and Wilson was hired to design the Villa, and British architect Stephen Garrett, who had served as Getty's consultant in the remodeling of a Getty home in Posillipo, Italy, was retained as overseer of the construction. Landscape architect Emmet Wemple designed the gardens, Garth Benton worked on the murals, and Bruce Ptolomy worked on the fountains. Construction began on December 21, 1970, and the new museum opened to the public on January 16, 1974, receiving negative and positive reviews.

J. Paul Getty died in 1976 without ever seeing the museum he commissioned, but is buried at the Villa site on a bluff overlooking the ocean. After Getty's death and the establishment of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Villa became part of a larger vision. As part of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Villa is overseen by the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic organization serving both general audiences and specialized professionals. The Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions. As of 2011 the Trust supports and oversees four programs: the Getty Research Institute; the Getty Foundation; the Getty Conservation Institute; and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Beginning in the 1980s the Trust developed an expansion plan that included the Getty Center campus in Brentwood and the renovation and expansion of the Villa in Malibu. When the Getty Center opened in 1997, the Villa closed to undergo extensive remodeling.

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