After striking out in Chicago, filmmaker George Lucas has found a home for his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved ceding 11 acres to Lucas for his $1.5B development, according to the Los Angeles Times. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti called it the largest private gift in the city's history.
The museum may break ground late next year in Exposition Park, with construction to start in earnest shortly after. In addition to the museum, Lucas and wife Mellody Hobson are establishing a $400M endowment. But the road to LA was a rocky one fraught with controversy.
Los Angeles was originally the odd city out in a three-way race between San Francisco (Lucas' hometown) and Chicago (where Hobson was born and raised, and married Lucas). San Francisco rejected allowing the museum to be built at The Presidio after Lucas refused to change the museum's design. The Chicago City Council agreed to give Lucas 17 acres of lakefront between Soldier Field and McCormick Place, only for Lucas and Hobson to reject the offer after a two-year legal battle with preservationists.
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