The Principals at Saiful Bouquet, while at prior firm, worked on multiple buildings including the Center for History and Arts, the North, South, East and West Pavilion. The J. Paul Getty Center consists of more than 1.5 million square feet of construction. The site is comprised of six separate yet interconnected structures. The Center is on a 110-acre site on Santa Monica Mountain in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.
The large site which contained varying contours, steep terrain and the presence of a seismic fault required the ingenuity of a combination of soil retaining and foundation systems such as caisson, mat footing and suspended footing. Long span structures with varying geometry were used to accommodate the open space and various complicated architectural features, such as the stairs, canopies, rotunda and the curved and free standing wall facades throughout the center.