Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) is located at the Museum Park in downtown Chicago, sitting next to the Lake Michigan. LMNA is the private museum in the possession of George Lucas, the director of Star Wars series. Last November, MAD, the architectural firm being responsible for the design and construction of LMNA, made public a design proposal which is as modern as the scenes of the science fiction films. LMNA, seemed like a rolling white dune at the shore of Lake Michigan, is lauded as “the pyramid from the future”. But such a design also stirred controversies and disputes locally due to its edgy style.

Friends of the Parks, a local Park Protection Organization in Chicago, therefore launched a lawsuit, claiming that the area along side the Lake Michigan was the protected regions where no one was entitled to build a private museum without the government's approval. Hence, the local court announced that LMNA had to halt construction before any further adjudication.

The detailed design proposal announced recently is of great differences from the original one. The new one emphasizes more the natural integration of the museum with the surrounding buildings and environment. The volume of building is reduced from 40 thousand square meters to 30 thousand square meters; the floor space, originally covering 17 acres (about sixty-eight thousand square meters), is reduced by 40 percent; while the outdoor plant-covered areas is increased to 4.6 acres (Eighteen thousand and six hundred square meters), equaling to half of the gross area.

Public open space is explicitly stipulated in the revised proposal, which includes the floating pedestrian platform, and the public grassland near the south side of the museum that is linked to the floating platform. The public grassland is used for sports and leisure, concerts and holiday celebrations.

 

Beneath the “floating platform” is the winding path linking LMNA, the Lake Michigan and the surrounding buildings. Parking lots and traffic hubs are also hidden blow the “floating platform”. Kate Orff, the project partner of SCAPE, told Grainchr(39)s (a Chicago medium) that such a design is make the boundary between the buildings and the earth fuzzy, but to make they two integrated and harmonious.

What’s more, the revised proposal firstly makes public the inner functions of LMNA. The centre of the museum is the vault named “Urban Hall”, and sunlight pours into from the roof of it. “Urban Hall” is the site for cultural activities, equipped with the largest LED multi-media screen worldwide. The visitors, walking along the spiral ramp around the vault, can appreciate the items on display in the circular hall. There are a temporary exhibition hall and a 360-degree floating landscape restaurant, where visitors can have a commanding view of Chicago.

Educational area and the library on the west and the three theaters on the east are the additional two important constituent parts of the museum. Theaters are good channels of introducing movie arts and digital arts. There are separated entrances halls for the three theaters but all the entrances halls are internally connected, which form a viewing gallery along the Lake Michigan.

The revised proposal will be submitted to the local regulatory agency next week. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, after the completion, will be the activity center for people to know more about the narrative movies. It is estimated that up to 500 thousand pieces of exhibits will be on display, including personal collections of Director Lucas, paintings of Norman Rockwell, costumes and props, and digital arts.