12. From a previous visit

Anyone recognize the building below?

Yes, correct, the Paul Getty Museum.  Entry is via a rail car and the view of LA on the way up was fantastic.

This building had some really interesting spaces no matter where you stood either inside or outside the building.  Notice the use of "natural lighting" - a key feature in the design

This plaque was located in the building - yes, it's green (in spirit).

In 1974 Mr Getty (an American oil billionaire) opened his 2nd museum in re-creation of his Villa at Papyri in CA.

In 1997 the museum moved to this location Brentwood (via $1.2 billion dollars available to spend on it).  That would have paid off my home loan quite nicely thankyou.  It re-opened in 2006.

The site is on a hilltop in the Santa Monica Mountains.  What is noticeable in the architecture is the "lines" of the building.  No matter where you look in the building, cladding lines, window opening, door openings, etc all lined up - meticulous detailing to achieve this.

The cladding is Italian travatine.  There is 1.2 million square feet of this stone here,

External view:












And another

The 16,000 tonnes of travertine came from Bagni di Tivoli in Italy (that's about 25km out of Rome).

I'm not sure if you can see in the photo I took opposite, the fossilized leaves and feathers and branches.  I think it took a year of experimenting on cutting these stones in order to get the finish that was achieved - I probably would have given up after a week!

 The interior was just as exquisite as was the detailing:

This one's for John P.  I though you'd like the tassles!

Now on a change of location and scenery here's another interior.  This was in Vegas in one of the many zillion hotels...

The next photos wasn't so much about interiors but a curved escalator - I've never seen one before.  Again, interesting what you can do when you've got no budget...