After an extended search, filmmaker George Lucas has chosen Los Angeles over the Bay Area as the home for his new self-funded Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Despite fairly broad support for a Treasure Island site, which was expected to help draw crowds to the island while spurring its development, Lucas went with a site in L.A.’s Exposition Park, near the University of Southern California, his alma mater.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee expressed his disappointment in the choice of Los Angeles over San Francisco, but added that he is “proud that our city came together like never before to deliver a bold vision and thoroughly viable plan for the museum, in an iconic location in the heart of the Bay Area, with 100 percent political and community support.”
After the original planned location in the Presidio was rejected by the Presidio Trust and vocal opponents, Lucas got further in the process with Chicago, hometown of his wife, Mellody Hobson. But neighborhood and parks activists there defeated the plan despite a strong effort by the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Lucas then returned to California, pitting San Francisco against Los Angeles.
Mayor Lee tried to put a good face on the loss, stating, “I am pleased that the museum will be built in California for our state’s residents to someday enjoy.”
