The Lucas Museum saga in Chicago has ended.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas announced Friday he is abandoning plans to build the project in Chicago, ending months of debate and controversy. Lucas, who wanted to build a museum showcasing his art collection along the city's lakefront, said in a statement he would shift his focus to trying to build the museum in California.
The Lucas Museum proposal has been on hold since November 2014, when the group Friends of the Parks filed a federal lawsuit blocking construction.
"No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot," filmmaker George Lucas said. "The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government."
While it seemed like this move back to California was a real possibility, it also seemed like there were some backroom negotiations going on to make this happen.
This development sorta feels like how we felt after Chicago didn't get the 2016 Olympics. Not saying they're similar situations, just saying right now it feels like Chicago is losing out similar to how it felt way back in 2008. In hindsight, Chicago not getting the bid seems like a blessing - maybe we'll feel the same way when this museum finally gets built in California.
Anyway, as you can imagine there are some pretty interesting reads on the fallout. Here are some of the articles that caught our eye:
- Blair Kamin (Chicago Tribune Columnist) Rips George Lucas - Chicago Tribune
- Rahm Can't Close the Deal - Chicago Tribune
- 5 Things We Learned from the Lucas Museum Saga - Chicago Tribune
- The Strange (and long) Reasons the Law Won't Let us Have the Lucas Museum - Chicago Mag
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