A steeply sloping site with an inactive fault trace traversing the site complicated the structural design development. The design had to account for sympathetic movement and could not straddle the fault line. In response, the team had to anchor building foundations on both sides and cantilever structures over either side.
Another challenge was the site’s massive grading, especially around the perimeter. The cut into the hillsides had to be balanced with the fill, as exporting the soil wasn’t allowed. Further, structural design had to respond to horizontal, inclined and downward sloped bedding plains in different ways.
Distinct Curved Structure
The 201,000-square-foot Getty Research Institute located on the Center’s southwest corner includes a round steel space frame structure built above a substructure of reinforced concrete columns, slabs and walls. The institute building adds a distinct aesthetic element to the campus with its curved design and houses a several hundred thousand volume library, archival storage of rare manuscripts, along with research and conference space for visiting scholars.
