Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 220 pages. This book provides a fascinating history of the planning, design, and construction of the six-building Getty Center in Los Angeles, one of the great cultural complexes to be built in our time. Writing with wit and passion, Richard Meier takes us behind the scenes of the thirteen-year-long, one-billion-dollar project.