It houses some of the art world's richest treasures, including works by Vincent van Gogh. irispopular rembrandt and precious collection A collection of paintings, portraits, and other works spanning over seven centuries.
To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles established the Marvels of fire protection engineering”, completed with firestone and concrete, protected steel, and set in a fully irrigated landscape.
Evacuation orders are currently in place for the Brentwood area of the city where the museum is located, the safest place for art in the event of a fire, as flames from the deadly Palisades wildfire rage nearby. The Getty Museum's claims may soon be overturned. To the test.
At least on the surface, there is little cause for concern. “Our galleries are safe and protected,” declared Kathryn Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. in a statement Saturday.
But then Last week was a close call The Getty Center's sister facility, the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, about 10 miles away, confirmed that staff remaining on site are “closely monitoring the situation.”
Fleming said there are no plans to evacuate the artwork or remaining personnel because Getty officials believe they are “already in the safest possible location.”
Articles published in 2019 on the museum website It details the extensive planning that went into building the Brentwood hilltop museum complex, with “safety materials, design, construction, operations, and controls” inside and out. I am.
The building sits on a travertine plaza and is surrounded by large open spaces that act as a buffer from fire. The landscape includes drought-tolerant plants and oak trees, which are frequently pruned to prevent branches from becoming fuel. Meanwhile, a comprehensive above-ground irrigation network is designed to prevent flame establishment.
“Emergency planning and safety is something we work on year-round. Thinking about fire safety is part of our culture at Getty,” said Mike Rogers, director of facilities at the Getty, in an article. I mentioned it in.
The walls within the campus are made of reinforced concrete or fire-resistant steel plates, and the roofs of the buildings are made of stone. Sprinklers with a million-gallon reservoir are installed throughout, but will only be used as a last resort, given the fragile nature of much of the museum's art.
Instead, buildings rely more on containment and are designed with fire compartments, or doors that can isolate individual parts of the site.
“When a fire breaks out, it doesn't have the power to travel,” Rogers said.
“We have a very important building here. It's been thoughtfully and carefully constructed and very carefully maintained. We feel very safe here.”
Fleming told the Los Angeles Times that all 16 Getty Villa museum employees continued to work last week as the Palisades Fire ravaged the campus, and “we were lucky in some ways, but people were moving around in a hurry.” spoke.
She said proactive measures such as heavy landscape pruning, clearing of low-lying brush and extensive irrigation helped prevent the disaster.
