Chicago out, California in for George Lucas museum | The Modesto Bee

“Star Wars” creator and Modesto native George Lucas announced Friday that he has abandoned plans to build his art museum in Chicago, blaming delays over a lawsuit from a parks group opposed to development along the city’s prized lakefront.

The filmmaker said in a statement that he would take his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to his home state of California, but he did not name a specific location. He blamed Chicago’s Friends of the Parks group for suing to stop construction on what is now a parking lot for the NFL stadium Soldier Field.

“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” Lucas said. Friends of the Parks did not respond to a request for comment.

Before Lucas had settled on Chicago, where his wife is from, he had considered locating the museum in San Francisco. But a local – albeit unlikely – effort to have the museum located in Lucas’ hometown of Modesto also was launched in January 2014, spearheaded partly by longtime city advocate Chris Murphy. That Modesto effort still has its own Facebook presence – the “George Lucas Hometown Museum” community page at www.facebook.com/georgelucasmuseum.

Murphy was among those on The Modesto Bee’s Facebook page Friday, where comment was sought about the possibility of resurrecting just that idea.

“We should put our hat in for sure,” Murphy commented on the post. “Even if we can’t be the place for the huge art collections, we should go for the Lucas Family History/American Graffiti Museum here in Modesto. We can do this!”

Others were not as enthusiastic:

“He should NOT,” Dave Bristow said. “Neither this museum nor Modesto are a huge draw on their own. As much as I would love to have it here, it would’ve (been) more successful & prominent in San Francisco.”

“Not in this lifetime, or this Galaxy for that matter,” commented Daniel Aguilar.

But Murphy’s suggestion for a Modesto bid was shared by Juan Ortiz, commenting: “Would be amazing and help bring more tourism to town.”

Murphy also told The Bee in a message that a Modesto effort could be on Lucas’ radar. “We have built a good foundation for this with the Cruise Route/Walk of Fame/Murals and George is familiar with our efforts here.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and members of that city’s cultural and business communities had backed the director’s plans to bring the museum to the lakefront site, an area that is already home to a natural history museum, planetarium and aquarium. But it set off an impassioned fight with Friends of the Parks, which argued the museum plans violated laws restricting development along Lake Michigan.

Emanuel released a statement Friday calling it a “missed opportunity” that would cost the city millions of dollars in economic investment, thousands of jobs and educational opportunities for the city’s youths.

“Unfortunately, time has run out and the moment we’ve consistently warned about has arrived – Chicago’s loss will be another city’s gain,” Emanuel said.

The 17-acre site just south of the Chicago Bears’ home stadium would have erased a parking lot and added 4.5 acres of new parkland, according to designs released in September. Supporters defended it as an improvement that would turn an asphalt expanse into green space with dazzling landscape design by renowned Chicago architect Jeanne Gang.

They said the museum’s futuristic building – a sloping dune-like form topped with an observation deck resembling a floating disc –would have added to Chicago’s tradition of bold architecture.

Friends of the Parks, which is committed to preserving open space, fought the location out of concern it would open the way for more construction on the valuable ribbon of public, open land along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

In a federal lawsuit, it said the city had no authority to hand over the land, citing a legal principle known as the public trust doctrine, which requires the state to ensure open spaces are preserved and accessible to the public.

The museum, wherever it ends up, will showcase popular art Lucas has collected since college, including illustrations by Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth, as well as works by Lucas’ visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic.

It will also feature digital media art and film industry art, including props, costumes, set pieces and story boards. Museum officials say the vision is to highlight art that tells a story.