George Lucas not building museum in Chicago after controversy over location
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will not be built on the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago as planned instead, the project will be moved to California due to obstacles raised by an environmental organization, film director George Lucas said.
The creator of the “Star Wars” saga, who had been authorized by the Chicago Park District to build his fourstory museum on municipal land, said in a statement that the work was made impossible by a lawsuit filed in 2014 by the environmentalist group Friends of the Parks.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” Lucas said about the lawsuit blocking construction on Museum Campus, a park next to Soldiers Field and the McCormick Place convention center.
According to Lucas, the environmentalists’ legal actions and his subsequent attempts to obtain concessions from the city effectively put an end to the project.
Friends of the Parks maintained, with the support of the judge assigned to the case, that park lands cannot be given to private organizations by the municipality.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a defender of the museum, stated that “this missed opportunity has not only cost us what will be a worldclass cultural institution, it has cost thousands of jobs for Chicago workers, millions of dollars in economic investment and countless educational opportunities for Chicago’s youth.”
The museum, designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong, was to have three theaters, a library and an educational center, plus costumes of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Yoda and Han Solo.
According to newspaper articles, San Francisco would like to welcome the museum.