News

36 Hours, Provincetown, Mass
August 11, 2006
Fred A. Bernstein, The New York Times: "Park your bike at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (460 Commercial Street, 508-487-1750; www.paam.org), the town's premier art space, especially with its smart new addition by Machado and Silvetti (the architects of the Getty Villa restoration in Los Angeles). It's open till 10 p.m. (and free) on Friday nights. There are dozens of other galleries in Provincetown, and they're all open late on Fridays. You'll have to make one detour to the DNA Gallery (288 Bradford Street, 508-487-7700; dnagallery.com). DNA shares space with the Provincetown Tennis Club, which explains the Ping-Pong table in the lobby. If you're bored with art, volley for serve."

In Cozy P-town, a Spacious Newcomer Fits Right In
June 4, 2006
Robert Campbell, Blobe Correspondent: "Indoors, the museum is a delight. The galleries are high and wide and so arranged that you can take them all in—new ones and old ones—with one looping walk. They're beautifully lighted from skylights, which face north to avoid direct sun. Their backs, facing south, bear photovoltaic panels. There's artificial light too, but it automatically dims as daylight increases. The whole building, in fact, is a serious attempt at green architecture. The museum expects a silver LEED rating (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from the US Green Building Council…"

Architectural Record Editor Robert Ivy visits the Getty Villa
June 6, 2006
"What a scrumptious sight. All that vegetation, all that money so artfully deployed to create an Eden in concrete and stone. The architects seemed to have worked at two scales-a sort of muscular heroic, in which beefy walls step along canyon walls, offering heft and a clearly articulated step up the canyon walls, then cascading down the hillsides in a series of cascades. At the same time, the hybrid project includes a wealth of detailing that would make an emperor blush: Italian marble that glows from within, bronze fittings and entire walls of glazing, hand-crafted sconces and fittings, and more varieties of concrete than you could have imagined existed. Black marble flows like water on flat surfaces; Turkish onyx caps a wall. All that oil money has been frozen in time, transformed into a roman dreamscape that funnels inside to the displays, climatically and seismically stabilized."

Clifford Pearson on the Getty Villa in Architectural Record
May 11, 2006
"By pushing most of the new buildings into the side of the canyon, Machado and Silvetti hid much of the structures' bulk and used them as a finely articulated retaining wall. The firm also tied the various pieces together with a meandering path punctuated by stairs, landings, terraces, and scenic overlooks. The best of the new is the grand entry pavilion, whose freestanding, onyx-topped portal frames a dramatic view of the villa looming above it. The outdoor spaces spanning the divide are wonderful: well-proportioned, urbane places for enjoying a snack, relaxing, or pondering the riddle of restoring a facsimile of a house that no one in 2,000 years has seen. As for the villa itself, Machado and Silvetti's renovation delivers a near miracle-a museum that elicits no smirks from the art world.

Without irony or any Postmodern winks, the architects treated the villa as a serious building, as "an artifact in a collection," explains Silvetti. First-time visitors probably won't know it, but the architects made major changes-including adding 58 windows to the once-dark gallery corridors around the inner peristyle, opening up the atrium with a retractable skylight, and creating a series of dazzling stone floors that interpret ancient decorative patterns. As every jeweler knows, the setting is as important as the jewel, especially if the rock turns out to be cubic zirconia. Machado and Silvetti has done a masterful job with the Getty's setting, crafting a sophisticated ensemble of buildings, plazas, and landscaping that finally provides a real home for a relic of another time and place."

Getty Villa awarded Grand Prize at LA Architecture Awards
19 May 2006
Find additional coverage here.

New PAAM Images by Anton Grassl
April 25, 2006
A new series of exterior images by the photographer Anton Grassl can be found here.

Flickr Getty Images
April 26, 2006
Many images taken by visitors to the Getty Villa can be found on the social photography site Flickr.

Getty Villa Works on Many Layers, Robert Campbell, The Boston Globe
April 16, 2006
"Wonderful buildings are rare. Too many things can go wrong. Like a choir of angels, everyone involved has to sing in harmony—the architect, the owner, the engineers and other consultants, the builders, the neighbors, and the people who furnish, manage, and occupy the place. So it's a pleasure to report that the Getty Villa in Malibu, which was designed by Boston architects and opened in January, is a wonderful building."

South Boston Maritime Park awarded ASLA General Design Award of Honor
April 25, 2006
Already featured in Landscape Architecture magazine and local periodicals, and recipient of an Honor Award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, the park and its café are among the most popular sites in the emerging Seaport district. "The level of craftsmanship is so appealing and responsive to the maritime legacy."

Provincetown Museum Mixes History With Avant-Garde
April 9, 2006
William Morgan, Hartford Courant: "The just-completed addition to the Provincetown Art Association and Museum is as edgy, remarkable and as captivating as the town itself. This unabashedly modern concrete, glass and wood addition is attached to a simple frame Federal-period house that has served as the association's home for 85 years. With the exception of some shingled sheathing, there has been no attempt to reconcile past and present. Yet that very in-your-face attitude is why the new museum is such a triumph."

When in Malibu, Do as the Romans Did
26 March 2006
Jeanne Cooper, SF Chronicle: "With a new entrance, buildings, landscaping and special events centered on its classical arts collection, the Getty Villa is both more welcoming and more rewarding than before-if you can get in. You see, while the spirit of J. Paul might drop in whenever he chooses, the public needs free, timed tickets that are already sold out through the end of July. But if, like the new villa's designers, you're willing to take a slightly different approach, you might be able to score a visit with a special bonus…"

The Mint Museums Expansion Continues...
March 6, 2006
Further information about Machado and Silvetti's expansion and relocation of the Mint Museums in Charlotte, North Carolina can now be found on their website, where Patricia Rodgers, Chair of The Mint Museums' Board of Trustees, elaborates on the design team choice. "During the interview process, the Selection Committee felt strongly that this team demonstrated a passion for every aspect of what the Mint is trying to accomplish for the community. We could see their ability to collaborate in everything they told us and everything they showed us."

An Afternoon at the Getty Villa
March 6, 2006
Tucker Neel, LA Alternative: Tucker Neel spends an afternoon at the Getty Villa: "Just before the Villa closed and the guards kicked me out, I took a second to inhale the picture perfect view of the Pacific Ocean from the top floor overlooking the Outer Peristyle gardens. I found myself caught in a moment of total enchantment…"

Getty Villa Digs Out After Its Own Volcanic Eruption
February 20, 2006
William Booth, The Washington Post: "The renovated Getty Villa, with its new marble and mosaic floors and freshly painted walls, is now surrounded by a new campus of modernist buildings designed by Boston architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti. The lean, clean structures house administration, education, conservation staffs, as well as a welcome pavilion, store and café… Among the challenges the architects had to deal with was the flow. What they hit upon… is the metaphor of an archeological dig. Today a visitor approaches the villa first from below; then you ascend to and rise above it, and look down and see it nestled in a narrow canyon, "as though the villa was being excavated."

When in Rome: A Striking Redesign of the Getty's Malibu Villa
February 20, 2006
Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker: "By treating the barely old as a revered object, Machado and Silvetti somehow make visitors feel that this building is no longer an object of ridicule but, rather, worthy of respect. It is an understated, sly maneuver, and they do it without taking the easy path of irony. Machado and Silvetti have recast the villa not only through their upgrades but in the way they have surrounded it with a series of new structures, changing its context. The villa is no longer its own little theme park: it is now an architectural folly in the center of a carefully conceived, impeccably wrought modern campus. In the English landscape tradition, the folly was not a trivial object but a noble act of historical connoisseurship, playing off against a great manor house that was designed in a more contemporary style. Machado and Silvetti have saved the once outlandish villa by connecting it to this honorable architectural heritage."

Getty Gets Grand Opening
February 3, 2006
Fernando Roldan, Canyon News: "We worked to reverse the difficulties created by the steep topography, transforming it from a barrier into a virtue of the overall campus," Jorge Silvetti, principal of architects Machado and Silvetti Associates, Inc., said in the press release. "Now, visitors can wander through the lush site, following the contours of the design and terrain, to experience the drama of an archeological dig. Here we have uncovered, as it were, previously hidden artifacts that are presented to visitors as if they were his or her discovery."

New Getty Museum Gives Ancient Artifacts a Fresh Face
February 3, 2006
Gloria Goodale , Christian Science Monitor: "Originally built in 1974 by oil tycoon J. Paul Getty to showcase an eclectic collection that included not only antiquities but French furniture and paintings by the Old Masters, the museum was closed eight years ago for an ambitious modernization and expansion. Everything but the ancient art was moved up to the Getty's sister museum in Brentwood. The beachside villa was refurbished and redesigned as a one-of-a-kind world-class "campus," devoted to the study and exhibition of classical art, with new on-site research and conservation facilities."

Malibu Museum Getty Gets Lift
February 19, 2006
Jerry Brown , Boston Herald: "The original villa and a couple of other smaller buildings had been built using little of the 64-acre site. In order to expand the facility to allow construction of the 23 galleries in which the art is displayed, the hill had to be excavated to provide more buildable space. By the same method, a parking structure, sadly lacking in the grounds of the earlier museum, was created."

Renovated Classical Museum Returns to L.A. Art Scene
Februrary 2, 2006
Evan Henerson, Press Telegram: "The galleries themselves have also undergone a significant face lift. A central staircase now links the two floors… The addition of nearly 60 windows and skylights floods the building with natural light."It really gets you close to one of the most important traits of the Roman household: the connection to nature," says Silvetti. "That was very important to us. Natural light and classical art were meant for each other."

The Getty Villa: The 'Wow' Factor
February 2, 2006
Tom Teicholz, Huffpost: "As you turn the corner, you are dazzled by a 180-degree panorama that looks over the roof of the villa itself, down the canyon and out to the sea. You can take in the breadth of the outdoor peristyle gardens, the new entrance of the Getty Villa in all its classical splendor, and then look up the hill to the new structures, the café with indoor and outdoor seating and a snack cart, as well as a new museum gift shop, the Getty ranch house and the new buildings devoted to staff, conferences, conservation and education."

Villa's Reopening a Low-Key Marvel
January 29, 2006
Mike Boehm and Lynne Heffley, LA Times:"The Getty Villa reopened to the public Saturday, a low-key unveiling that nonetheless left visitors marveling – as much at the beauty of the $275-million transformation of the museum and grounds as at the antiquities collection inside. Despite storms buffeting the J. Paul Getty Trust for more than a year, all was sunny in Pacific Palisades, where trust President Barry Munitz held the door to welcome the first visitors."The presentation of the art is already an art. The site is art," said Denise Brkljacic, who with her husband, Predrag, and 38 others in a group from the Fullerton Senior Multi-Service Center, were among the first regular guests to set foot on the grounds since the villa closed in 1997."

The Getty's Awkward Bit
January 28, 2006
Stephen West, The Globe and Mail:"This job was much more extensive than a renovation," Silvetti said. "It was the creation of a campus," including a 450-seat outdoor amphitheatre, 250-seat auditorium, restaurant, bookstore, offices, conservation labs and parking structures arranged around the central museum building."

Getty's Vision Is Vindicated
January 30, 2006
John Hiscock, Telegraph:" The long-anticipated opening was California's biggest art and architecture event of the year. Words are being eaten and criticism rethought. Instead of an old man's display of personal vanity, the Getty Villa, as it is called, is now viewed as a vibrantly splendid testament to the oilman's vision and dreams of grandeur."

Getty Museum Reopening Its Much Renovated Villa
January 27, 2006
John Rogers, Seattle Times: "I would hope there is a sense of wonder that really surprises in a very, very happy and positive way," Silvetti said as he sat in the plaza's courtyard on a recent sun-dappled day. "Our vision of the project was very deliberate – to create surprises."

Seeing the Ancients Anew
January 26, 2006
Nancy Ganiard Smith, Palisadian Post:" (T)he revamped Villa… following the winning design of architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti, is perhaps the most carefully done building of its kind ever built, with a state-of-the-art systems installed throughout to ensure the safety of the works of art."

Villa Shines Through Getty's Clouds
January 26, 2006
Christopher Knight of the LATimes CalendarLive:"As redesigned by the Boston-based architectural team of Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti, the extraordinary complex exudes an unmistakably elegiac aura."

LA Daily News on the Getty Villa
2006
Renovated classical museum returns to L.A. art scene. "Initial impressions count for a lot, and the people who have redesigned and renovated the Getty Villa are looking to produce some serious "Wows!" rather quickly…"

A Window on the Past Opens Wider
2006
Christopher Reynolds of the LATimes CalendarLive:"No matter if Herakles has fallen off your holiday card list. Never mind if you don't know an alabastron from a loutrophoros. Odds are you will soon find yourself at the Getty Villa on the edge of Malibu, maybe trailing a loved one, maybe squiring out-of-towners. After an eight-year closure for renovation and litigation, the villa finally reopens Saturday… "Facing tricky topography and the property's eccentric history as a 20th century copy of a 2,000-year-old Roman country house, the answer of architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti was to half-bury everything in the hillside. This gives the whole place the feeling of a well-catered archeological dig, minus the dust, plus a few thousand plants and up to 1,200 visitors per day…"

Machado and Silvetti Associates Chosen for Mint Museums Project
2006
Machado and Silvetti Associates, a Boston architectural firm experienced with museums, has been chosen to design the Mint Museums' new building on South Tryon Street uptown. The firm will work with Washington, D.C., consultant George Sexton and Charlotte firm Clark Patterson Associates. The museum will be part of a complex spearheaded by Wachovia that will include retail, a 1,100-seat theater and condos. "It's a very, very complicated project," Mint board chairman Pat Rodgers said Wednesday of a new facility pegged at 145,000 square feet and $54 million. The three firms, she said, were chosen to cooperate on ensuring the Mint fits into the complex but also stands out-facing Tryon Street, it will be next to a 40-plus story Wachovia tower and have condos above; creating an identity for the crafts museum. The project brings together the fine arts from the Randolph Road museum and crafts from the North Tryon museum, a venue that's gotten national support and attention, something the Mint wants to hold onto; and helping create a new urban gateway for uptown's southern end, bringing together open space, the area's first cultural facilities, retail and offices.

Guardian Article on the Getty Villa: “Under the California Sun”
January 26, 2006
Emily Carr, The Guardian: "The Getty Villa is reopening this week after a 12-year, $275m renovation. Its new raison d'etre: to house and display the museum's extensive, and lately disputed, classical antiquities collection. Emily Carr takes a tour with architect Jorge Silvetti. If controversy is a harbinger of success – and in Los Angeles, it usually is – then the Getty Villa, one of this city's most treasured cultural icons, is set to be a smash hit as it re-emerges after an epic facelift…"

Getty Villa Opens to the Public
2006
The Getty Villa in Malibu California is set to open to the public on the 18th of January, 2006. The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades will reopen to the public on Saturday, January 28, bringing to an end the protracted renovation construction that began in 1997 but was interrupted by opposition to the project. This cultural landmark returns with a new mission as an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.

The renovated Villa includes new galleries, which feature steel support systems hidden in the walls and floors to secure large and heavy works of art and protect them in case of earthquakes. Among other highlights are the new 250-seat auditorium and the 450-seat Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater, an outdoor theater based on ancient prototypes that allows contemporary audiences to experience classical performances as they were once viewed. The site also incorporates new space for Getty staff and scholars, including state-of-the-art conservation laboratories, seminar rooms, a classroom, and the research library at the Villa with about 20,000 volumes. Further information is available at the Getty website.