Lucas Museum opening delayed to 2025

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has revealed new details about its collection - and a delay in its opening date from 2023 to 2025.

“It’s humbling and energizing to see how all aspects of this new public resource are taking shape,” said museum director and chief executive officer Sandra Jackson-Dumont in a news release. “We believe that narrative art can connect us and help shape a more just society. As a result, every element of this institution contributes to that idea—the site is one physical manifestation of that."

The $1-billion museum, a legacy project from filmmaker George Lucas, is taking shape on the western side of Exposition Park along Vermont Avenue between Exposition Boulevard to the north and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the south. The five-story, 300,000-square-foot building - home to a 100,000-piece collection that includes Roman mosaics, Renaissance paintings, and contemporary photography - is the centerpiece of an overall 11-acre complex which also includes new park space to the south.

"The campus with its iconic building and arched belly that creates a canopy, coupled with the 200-plus trees taking root in the park, together create another community gathering place with much needed shade for our neighbors and others who will use the site," said Jackson-Dumont.

Designed by MAD Architects (with Stantec serving as executive architect), the Lucas Museum is framed in steel and concrete, with an exterior composed of 1,500 glass fiber reinforced polymer panels (now taking shape along its southern facade). The building was intended as an extension of the tree canopy of exposition park, with plaza at the center if the site, shielded by the museum structure above.

At street level, gardens designed by Studio MLA have replaced surface parking lots to the south, and created new entry points to Exposition Park. More than 200 trees are being planted within the newly created open space, which will also feature an amphitheater, a hanging garden, and a pedestrian bridge.

While the Lucas Museum is perhaps the most visible recent addition to Exposition Park, it is not the only large project to recently arrive at the state-owned green space. A long-planned expansion of the Museum of Natural History is in progress directly east across Bill Robertson Lane, and construction began early this year for the $400-million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center, which will create a 20-story structure to serve as the permanent home of the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

• Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Urbanize LA)