The Getty's Last Winter on the Hill Runs on a Countdown

When did you last ride the tram up from Sepulveda just to walk the Central Garden for an hour? For anyone in Bel Air, the Getty Center is the museum next door, across the 405 at 1200 Getty Center Drive. That neighbor is now on a clock. The Getty Center will close to the public beginning March 15, 2027, and plans to reopen in spring 2028. The schedule on the hill has been built around that date. Its exhibition calendar ends together on one weekend, and the sensible way to see it is in the order things leave.

A Season Arranged to End on One Sunday

The Getty describes the work as its biggest round of modernization since the Center opened in 1997. The Los Angeles Times estimates the cost at $600 million to $800 million. The Times reports that the money goes to the tram, the Welcome Hall and the South Pavilion, at a museum that draws 1.3 million visitors a year.

Each of the current exhibitions has a closing date. Lined up by that date, the shows thin out steadily through the winter and then several end together on the final weekend:

March 14, 2027 is a Sunday. Four shows end that day, and the doors close to the public the next morning. Two of the four haven't opened yet. The Wright of Derby show arrives November 24, and the Paul R. Williams show opens December 15. The newest material gets the shortest run before the hilltop goes dark.

Working Backward From March 14

Admission is a free, timed-entry reservation. Reservations open six weeks ahead, and parking costs extra. Six weeks before March 14 is January 31, so reservations for that last weekend open at the end of January. A neighbor living ten minutes from the tram has the whole winter to visit, and the closing dates give a natural order:

1. Before Thanksgiving weekend ends. Charles Ross: Spectrum 14 is the first to go, on November 29.
2. Before the holidays end. The Mexican photography show and Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles both close January 3. The Holy Family at Home follows on January 10.
3. By the end of February. Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions, which opened October 20, ends February 28.
4. Any quiet weekday from mid-December through early March. The medieval manuscript show, Portrait of Mai, Wright of Derby and Paul R. Williams can all be seen in one visit. Waiting until the final weekend means competing with everyone else who waited.

The program calendar thins out the same way. November is busiest. The Getty Center calendar lists "When the Holy Family Went Viral" on November 7, "Learning from Laura Aguilar" on November 8, and "Canto de Todes: A Performance and Conversation with Dorian Wood" on November 14. Next come "Oaxacan Recipes and Remembrance with Bricia Lopez" on November 15 and the "Getty Supper Club: La Belle Époque" on November 22. December has three dates: "Drawing in the Dark" on December 5, "Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter and Draftsman" on December 6, and "Non-Consenting Collaborators with Gala Porras Kim" on December 12. After that the calendar is mostly empty until Friday, March 12, 2027. That day brings "Shining a New Light on Joseph Wright of Derby's Two Boys with a Bladder," which is the last dated event currently on the Center's schedule.

Galleries may already look different on a visit this fall. The Getty says the first phase of work has begun, and some galleries are closed for upgrades to the campus HVAC system.

The Show With the Strongest Local Ties

Of the four shows ending March 14, Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line has the clearest connection to the Westside. Williams was the first Black architect licensed in the western United States. The exhibition marks the first public showing of his archive and runs in the Research Institute Galleries. His work in the area is well documented. LACMA's exhibition advisory credits him with updates to the Beverly Hills Hotel from 1941 to 1959. The Paul R. Williams Project records his role as interiors architect for the original Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, along with expansions in 1940 and 1948.

The Getty show is one of three Williams retrospectives running across the city at once, and its run is the shortest. USC Fisher Museum of Art's Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered runs through March 13, 2027. LACMA's Paul R. Williams: Architect for Living opens November 15 in the Resnick Pavilion and stays up until May 31, 2027. Seeing the Getty portion while the hilltop is still open makes the most sense, and LACMA can wait until spring.

The joint programming page has several dates worth putting in the calendar now:

• November 18, 7 p.m. "Paul R. Williams and the Idea of Home," a free conversation at LACMA. RSVP required.
• November 19, 6:30 p.m. "The Missing Middle," a free talk at Fisher on housing and Williams's legacy. RSVP required.
• November 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Paul Revere Was Here," co-presented by LACMA and the Los Angeles Conservancy. It includes a self-guided tour of Williams buildings around Los Angeles. Tickets are $35, or $30 for LACMA members.
• December 18, 7 p.m. "How Paul R. Williams Made Los Angeles," a free program at LACMA. RSVP required.
• January 30, 10 a.m. USC's community spaces tour of the 28th Street YMCA, the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building and First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

What Happens to the Tram

The tram has run since the Center opened in 1997. According to the Daily News, it will be replaced with new cars and a new propulsion system, with higher capacity and shorter waits. The Art Newspaper, citing The New York Times, reports that the new tram should carry 400 more people per hour than the current one. Tim Whalen, the Getty Trust's vice president of institutional planning, explained the aim to the Los Angeles Times:

"We're trying to improve the way visitors are received at the tram, and make it a much more welcoming, beautiful and art laden entry than we currently have."

The new lower entry was reviewed by the local neighborhood council. The Getty's application covers a 3.8-acre area beside the I-405. Plans include new visitor and support buildings, about 16,773 square feet of shade canopy, grand entry stairs and elevators, a café, retail, a parking office and restrooms. The applicant says construction stays within the existing North Entry parking facility, does not border residential property, and should take about 12 months. Committee minutes describe the project as not intended to increase visitor or vehicle capacity. The Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee recommended approval on September 8, 2026, on the condition that the vertical glass be fritted. The full board then voted to recommend approval once the fritting was confirmed, according to the council's October 2026 report to the community.

Caltrans is also working in the pass. Its I-405 Sepulveda Pass repaving project is scheduled to finish in winter 2027. Reduced-speed sections and uneven pavement are expected through winter 2026 and early spring 2027, so the drive to the tram this season may be slower than usual.

Where the Getty Goes While the Hill Is Closed

During the closure the Getty will open a new program space on Sepulveda Boulevard, in a building now being renovated across from the Center, and that space will stay in use after the hilltop reopens. The Times reports plans for family festivals, lecture series and other arts programs there. Whalen told the paper the space might allow activities "possibly even more cutting-edge than our spaces here allow us to pursue." No address or opening date has been announced yet.

The Getty Villa will stay open throughout, with a full schedule of exhibitions, programs and events. It will also add a gallery of paintings normally shown at the Center, so some familiar works will spend the year by the ocean. The Getty has also bought a property in Westwood near the planned Metro stop at Westwood and Wilshire, intended as long-term housing for its scholar programs.

The Getty plans to reopen the Center in spring 2028, ahead of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Until then, the hilltop's last day open to the public is Sunday, March 14, 2027.

At Nancy Ellin Realty Group, we're following the changes along the Sepulveda Pass closely, from the new lower entry to the Getty's program space across the boulevard. If you're thinking about how this corridor will change before 2028, we'd be glad to talk it through with you. Request a Private Consultation.