George Lucas has been trying to open a museum to house his personal collection of art and movie memorabilia for awhile now; last June, Chicago beat out San Francisco for hosting duties. Now, it seems a third city may in the running: Los Angeles.
According to an LA Times report, “complications” are getting in the way of the uber-modern Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s planned construction on Chicago’s lakefront. (One being a lawsuit filed by an environmental group; another being a “No Thx” vote from the Chicago Tribune; yet another being the fact the massive museum’s design was somewhat controversial.) If Chicago doesn’t pan out, however, Lucas is prepared to take his “vanity museum” to Los Angeles, which pitched woo at him before he chose the Windy City.
Says the LA Times story:
“The advantage Los Angeles has is that it’s on the USC campus and I don’t have to go through all the rigmarole of years and years of trying to get past everything,” Lucas said. “That’s an advantage because I do want to get it done in my lifetime.”
Lucas turned 70 in May. But he hasn’t given up on Chicago yet.
“I have faith in Chicago and [Mayor] Rahm [Emanuel], who is dedicated to making it happen,” Lucas said. “But he’s also coming up for election next month.”
Lucas has been known to pull the plug on plans in the face of concerted resistance. He tried to build a fully functioning studio up in Marin County’s Lucas Valley for years.
According to a Curbed report, the design for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (pictured above; check out a video featuring the architect, Ma Yansong, discussing it below) comprises 400,000 square feet (room enough for four movie theaters and a restaurant), and will cost an estimated 400 million of George Lucas’ dollars.
Via Curbed LA.
