Los Angeles will be home to George Lucas' $1-billion museum

[montréaliste]

I'm hoping Chewbacca replicas will stand next to Degas' pastel ballerinas leading to a screenwriter's epiphany. Maybe a "Bigfoot Chainsaw Tango in Paris". I like the mix of high concept and Highbrow art. I wouldn't have it any other way L.A. On the other hand, San Francisco is a little too precious for that kind of Post Cultural stuff. Lol.

[Buckeye Native 001]

It's not like Exposition Park is lacking a museum that provides whatever we're defining as "high brow" entertainment/education (California Science Center).

Thanks Brandon, I haven't been to the coliseum since 2008.

[mhays]

This meets the jealous test. I'm jealous that might city didn't get it, not that we were on any list. So kudos.

Museums with era-specific appeal can be interesting to keep going. They know this, obviously, and a focus outside of Star Wars is part of this.

A smaller equivalent in my area is Paul Allen's Experience Music Project, which has focused on rock and pop music. This is a controversial Gehry-designed building next to the Space Needle (I like it actually). Fairly quickly a wing was repurposed for his sci-fi collection. Now the whole thing has been rebranded as the Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP. I wonder if that name dilutes the appeal of the music and sci-fi elements, but it does allow it to adapt (I don't think he subsidizes it much).

[sentinel]

Congrats LA - our loss in Chicago, based on generalized cognitive dissonance from a handful of xenophobic assholes who use scorched-earth tactics instead of reason and logic to get what they want, is your gain. Use it well.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Now LA has the distinct honor of hosting a collection of Star Wars trinkets on public parkland. SF and Chicago dodged a bullet.

SF and Chicago were right to kick it out of the Presidio and lakefront park. LA's location improves with this museum by replacing a parking lot. SF/Chicago's location, on the other hand, are pristine public spaces that get cheapened. And to even consider those prime locations represent absolute hubris on Lucas' part.

[10023]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Congrats LA - our loss in Chicago, based on generalized cognitive dissonance from a handful of xenophobic assholes who use scorched-earth tactics instead of reason and logic to get what they want, is your gain. Use it well.

What on god's green earth did this have to do with xenophobia?

[maru2501]

that doesn't seem to be on any water, which was supposed to be non-negotiable

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by ocman

SF and Chicago were right to kick it out of the Presidio and lakefront park. LA's location improves with this museum by replacing a parking lot. SF/Chicago's location, on the other hand, are pristine public spaces that get cheapened. And to even consider those prime locations represent absolute hubris on Lucas' part.

Asphalt parking lots primarily used by Bears tailgaters is pristine public space?

[Eightball]

The wins keep coming for LA! Feels like we are entering a golden age for the city/metro

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by 10023

What on god's green earth did this have to do with xenophobia?

There is a pervasive attitude among self-appointed community activists and established organizations alike in Chicago that anything from outside the City limits is a danger/threat to the urban community at large. While this happens in EVERY major city, in Chicago, there is a fiercer protectionist attitude that has become more-or-less xenophobic because it decries any outsider involvement in Chicago as interference with probable damaging consequences (go figure).

Had the Lucas museum or the like been proposed by a Chicago-based philanthropist at the SAME EXACT location, Friends of the Park and their supporters would potentially not have put up nearly as much of a fight. In the case of the Lucas museum, they latched onto the false idea that it would have been a shlockfest of Star Wars movie memorabilia (which is only a small fraction of the overall art collection), and used that to further their unwarranted fight against a new cultural institution, using the Lakefront Protection ordinance to protect an existing asphalt parking lot that does NOT "promote and protect the health, safety, comfort, convenience and the general welfare of the people, and to conserve our natural resources" (taken from 16-4-030 of the LAKE MICHIGAN AND CHICAGO LAKEFRONT PROTECTION ordinance)...even though there are comparable institutions/precedents less than 1000' feet away, in the same 'Museum Campus.'

Would you like any additional information?

[The North One]

Originally Posted by ocman

SF and Chicago were right to kick it out of the Presidio and lakefront park. LA's location improves with this museum by replacing a parking lot. SF/Chicago's location, on the other hand, are pristine public spaces that get cheapened. And to even consider those prime locations represent absolute hubris on Lucas' part.

Since when is Treasure Island a pristine public space?

[HurricaneHugo]

Good for LA.

I'll drive up a few times!

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by HurricaneHugo

Good for LA.

I'll drive up a few times!

While you're at it, you think you could snap a couple pics of some of the development madness down there please?

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by Crawford

No, it is pretty much just Star Wars and pop culture tchotchkes.

The highfalutin' museum name was an attempt to rebrand the project after it came under criticism by established museums.

And ComicCon is just a gathering of a bunch of comic book nerds, right?

Congrats to LA, perfect city for this.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by 10023

Shouldn't this be somewhere in West LA? Movie-land?

Much of LA is "movie land" but if it has a center, it's the SFV, not West LA.

[10023]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Much of LA is "movie land" but if it has a center, it's the SFV, not West LA.

That might be where the studio lots are, but it's not where the tourists go.

[ue]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Much of LA is "movie land" but if it has a center, it's the SFV, not West LA.

I thought it was split between the Valley and West LA, with the Thirty Mile Zone? I know there's not much left in Hollywood proper anymore, but aren't some of the big studios located in Culver City, Santa Monica, and West LA Proper?

[NativeOrange]

Originally Posted by ue

I thought it was split between the Valley and West LA, with the Thirty Mile Zone? I know there's not much left in Hollywood proper anymore, but aren't some of the big studios located in Culver City, Santa Monica, and West LA Proper?

The ones in bold are within LA's city limits.

Disney (Burbank)
Warner Bros. (Burbank)
Columbia (Culver City)
MGM (Beverly Hills)
Universal Studios (Universal City)
Fox (Century City)
Paramount (Hollywood)

[ue]

Right! So it is more of a mix, then...

[mello]

Count me in as someone who won't be making the drive and pay money to go in to some Billionaire's ego lair.