ma yansong – DesignApplause

lucas museum of narrative art by mad architects finally breaks ground in los angeles.

Mar 19, 2018

on 14 march 2018, the lucas museum of narrative art (lmna), designed by beijing studio mad architects, broke ground in los angeles’ exposition park.

its curvaceous structure is inspired by star wars, with circling landscapes and a giant arch for the public to wander around. the 100,000-square-foot gallery space within will display art collections and memorabilia from lucas and his wife, mellody hobson. other design cues include the likes of translucent elevator tubes that will transport visitors through the museum’s white ceiling in the lobby area. mad’s design also unites education and retail spaces within the interior, which is expected to open in 2021.

the ground breaking was a long time coming. originally meant to be constructed in chicago in 2014, the location moved to the west coast because of its initial lakefront site and the legal issues it posed. chicago-based DesignApplause feels that a big one got away.

at the groundbreaking ceremony, george lucas talked about his vision for the museum: “yes, this is an art museum, but i’m also trying to position it as an anthropological museum. it is my feeling that popular art is an insight into a society and what they aspire to; what they really want, what they really are — it is about telling the narrative of their story, their history and their belief system. i believe all kinds of art have a right to exist. i think it’s important to have a museum, that i used to jokingly say, supports all the orphan arts that nobody wants to see, but everybody loves. so that’s my dream for this.”

the museum is located in los angeles’ exposition park, and stands as a gateway to the park. it appears as if a futuristic spaceship, with a mysterious and surrealistic attitude, has “landed” on the site’s natural environment. people from all walks of life are welcome to feel and appreciate this cultural paradise. the interior of the building has been designed as a huge bright and open cave. skylights allow sunlight to flood the interior space, and guide visitors through the museum’s various programs. the first floor and roof of the building are expansive public areas that can be enjoyed by everyone. people can exercise here, relax, talk to the surrounding natural environment, and directly experience nature in the urban environment.

on the design of the museum lucas stated, “i am an avid architectural fan and i wanted a special museum that was a work of art in itself, and ma [yansong] has done that three times.

when asked about the project and its final home in los angeles, mad founder and principal partner ma yansong said, “an open city with an inclusive culture, especially innovative buildings, is very important. it is a pleasure to work with the american filmmaker and legend george lucas on creating a world-class landmark for los angeles. we hope that the joint efforts will continue to make los angeles the most creative metropolises in the world.”

the museum’s collection s is worth at least 400 million u.s. dollars and will cover art through three lenses: narrative art; the art of cinema; and digital art. donated by george lucas and mellody hobson, the expanding collection includes more than 10,000 paintings, illustrations and movie memorabilia. lucas said that, “the ultimate and all meaning of this museum lies in inspiring people’s imagination and allowing people to embrace all possibilities of art creation.” the los angeles government praised the museum as “the largest public gift ever given to a municipality”…

the $1.5 billion lucas museum of narrative art is a non-profit, covers an area of approximately 11 acres and was created and supported by george lucas and his wife mellody hobson. in 2014, mad architects, led by ma yansong, won the international competition of the lucas museum of narrative art to become the architect of the museum. from 2014 to the present, mad has provided three very unique designs, each responding to the three proposed locations of the project, with los angeles chosen as the final home.

the museum is expected to be ready for use in the second half of 2021.

[ timeline of the lucas museum of narrative art in review ]
2014
may > the museum held an invitation only, international design contest, with mad invited as the only company from asia
july – it is announced that mad has won the competition to be the museum architect
november – the concept design for the chicago museum is announced
2015
september – the museum announces plans to deepen the chicago design
2016
october – the museum announces it would give up chicago and make proposals for los angeles and san francisco. mad’s designs for both locations were revealed
2017
january – the museum announces los angeles as the final location
june – the museum receives approval from los angeles city council
2018
march – the museum officially breaks ground

images courtesy of mad architects

responsive second concept proposal for chicago’s lucas museum of narrative art.

Sep 17, 2015

a new proposal view of the lucas museum of narrative art with cityscape from the south east. all new proposal renderings are courtesy of the lucas museum of narrative art.

Chinese architect Ma Yansong [ MAD Architects ] second concept presentation of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art responds to being too big and unruly for the lakefront and the existing buildings in Museum Campus. With 25% less building mass and 40% less footprint, the second iteration sticks to the initial concept though its new scale is now cooperating with the surroundings. Regretfully, the naysayers wanting the same unobstructed views of the lake from Lake Shore Drive that the seldom used ‘parking lot’ offers will still not be happy campers along with the tail-gaters.

a bird’s eye view of the lucas museum of narrative art and surrounding park setting.

Though the building went from 110 feet tall to 137 feet tall, the new proposal is more sleek, lighter looking. The landscaping design, by New York’s SCAPE landscape architects and Chicago’s Studio Gang Architects, responds to the new proposal and delivers Ma’s vision that the building’s form itself is a rolling hill, though now with new dunes and bike and foot flow winding around it.

rendering of the visitor experience on the public plaza of the lucas museum of narrative art. the plaza as well as the surrounding greenspace will be open and accessible to park visitors.

a look inside the lucas museum of narrative art. the diagram shows the spiral ramp, three theaters, galleries, classrooms and library.

an aerial view of the lucas museum of narrative art site.

There are still unanswered questions what happens to traffic when the Chicago Bears play at home therefore traffic-flow plans are in order and we want to see more concept details. And please don’t stop being critical. Ma and team is responding. And please don’t stop squabbling the ‘parking lot’ is the best option because there is land available for a ‘parking facility’ immediately west of the Drive. If you’re debate is the view from Lake Shore Drive is ‘unpleasing to the eye’ please suggest leveling Soldier Field.

an aerial view of the the lakefront site.

The ‘view of the lake’ from Lake Shore Drive argument however, is only angle-deep. Here’s why. If you really wish to see the lake, don’t settle for views from LSD. It’s a whole new world being at the water’s edge. Seriously.

a side-by-side comparison of the lakefront site as it currently exists and how it will look with the museum and accessible, added green-space in place.

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

big yellow taxi | joni mitchell | 1970

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, in development for Chicago’s lake shore museum campus, will celebrate the power of visual storytelling through collections and exhibitions of narrative painting, illustration, photography, film and cinema arts, animation and digital art. The Museum’s highly innovative facility is designed by Beijing-based MAD Architects. The Lucas Museum’s collection, conceived and initiated by George Lucas, continues to develop and grow in order to fulfill the Museum’s educationally driven mission.

mad architects unveil design concept for lucas museum of narrative art.

Nov 4, 2014

the eagerly awaited design concept of the new lucas museum on chicago’s lakefront presents a taller than expected, futuristic and organic shapliness that makes an eloquent counterpoint to nearby man-made chicago architecture.

here’s what the 39-year-old architect, ma yansong of beijing says on mad’s website:

the architectural concept for the lucas museum of narrative art explores the relationship between nature and the urban environment. inspired by the work of frank lloyd wright and mies van der rohe, the design integrates the natural beauty of the park and lake michigan with the powerful man-made architecture of chicago. the design furthers the museum’s mission to be a place of education, culture, and inspiration.

the lucas museum design is both futuristic and timeless. its continuous undulating organic surface blurs the line between structure and landscape. as the harbor rises up to the land, it merges with stone surfaces that reach up to the sky and ultimately crescendos into a “floating” disc. the museum is not an isolated object, but a spatial experience that is defined by the people who occupy and interact with it. its uninterrupted stone surfaces are as primitive as it is futuristic, evoking the great achievements of architectural history. it is a place to discover and explore, to communicate and contemplate. more than a building, it is an urban vista for social interaction, bringing people closer to each other and to nature.

the seven-level, 110-foot-tall, 400,000-square-foot museum will occupy the southern half of a 17-acre site offered to lucas by mayor rahm emanuel. emanuel depicts the museum as a fitting statement to complete chicago’s museum campus, an array of three natural history museums: the adler planetarium, the field museum and the shedd aquarium.

[ main elements of the proposal] > visitors could park in an existing nearby waldron parking deck. a new pedestrian bridge would bring visitors to the museum’s main entrance facing lake michigan.
> that entrance, outdoor plazas and an amphitheater occupies the museum’s second level. the design includes a goodly addition of green space to the museum campus. “the whole idea of the building is to be part of nature, part of (the) landscape,” the architect said.
>the lucas team will work hard to accommodate bears fans at nearby soldier field.
>the building is comprised of three levels of exhibition space organized in continual loops. the white conical mass is topped by an elevated disc at the peak, which is to contain an observation deck offering 360º views toward the city and adjacent lake michigan.

1> field museum
2> shedd aquarium
3> adler planetarium
4> northerly island
5> lucas museum of narrative art

it comes as no surprise in chicago that the project has its detractors for building on the lakefront. the chicago plan commission will be among the city bodies reviewing the lucas museum’s plans. there’s a 1973 lakefront protection ordinance to contend with, which calls for chicago to protect the shoreline’s open character.

[ mad architects ] ma has won international recognition for his undulating museums in china and the shapely “marilyn monroe” residential towers near toronto. mad architects is joined by local firms studio gang and voa associates. for more details on the museum and its project team, see designapplause’s previous article.

[ lucas museum of narrative art ]

MAD architects + studio gang win chicago’s george lucas museum.

Jul 28, 2014

above> rendering of northerly island is from the framework plan | 2009 | courtesy of studio gang architects | click > enlarge

Four days after announcing that Chicago would be the home of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA), today George Lucas announces the architects: Ma Yansong, founder of Beijing based MAD architects and Jeanne Gang, founder of Chicago’s Studio Gang Architects. VOA Associates, based in Chicago, will serve as the executive architect and lead the implementation of MAD’s design.

The museum will be designed by Yansong and Gang the surrounding landscape and a pedestrian bridge to Northerly Island, a peninsula east of the museum site. The proposed site is a parking lot located between Soldier Field and McCormick Place. In addition there are three adjacent Museums – the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, all comprising a 57-acre parcel on Lake Michigan known as Museum Campus.

Yansong is a precocious figure for Chinese architecture, having made a name for himself around the world as a business leader and innovative architect. Recently named 2014’s Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Fast Company‘s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Yansong founded MAD Architecture in 2004 in Beijing, and earlier this year announced the opening of another office in Los Angeles.

absolute towers aka marilyn monroe towers | 2011 | courtesy of mad architects

aqua tower | 2009 | courtesy of studio gang architects

Gang in 2009 designed the tallest building in the world to have a woman as lead architect, her first skyscraper, and in 2011 a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Genius grant winner, the same year named in Fast Company‘s ‘Masters of Design’. She was recently honored with the 2013 National Design Award for Architecture, from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. She found Studio Gang Architects in 1997.

The Lucas release said of the team, “We are bringing together some of the top architects in the world to ensure that our museum experience begins long before a visitor ever enters the building,” said George Lucas, founder of the LMNA. “I am thrilled with the architectural team’s vision for the building and the surrounding green space. I look forward to presenting our design to the Chicago community.”

The project requires the approval of the Chicago Plan Commission. There’s opposition from both the open-space advocates and Chicago Bears fans who use the parking lot to tailgate. In addition there’s a key legal issue. In 1970, after the 70-story Lake Point Tower and McCormick Place convention center was built, a law was passed to pay attention to the city’s 14 policies for the shoreline. One policy says no further private development east of Lake Shore Drive. To be determined – is the Lucas Museum classified as a private or public institution. The three museums of the Museum Campus all occupy buildings that they own, but the museums were built long before the law took effect.

Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel heavily lobbied for the Lucas Museum and made the studied decision to include Gang in the task force that selected the site. The open-span advocates also are aware, or should be, of Gang’s body of work, rich with the restoration of wildness to nature in urban settings. Her projects tackle social problems, notably how to create environmentally sustainable cities. Gang believes that the design of institutions such as museums or aquariums not only reflects human culture but can also shape it.

The museum will be home to more than 500,000 objects including ‘Star Wars’ and Norman Rockwell art. No price tag has been announced but figure on $1 billion – Lucas pledged $700M when talking to San Francisco about this project. Conceptual drawings are expected in September 2014 and the museum plans to open in 2018.

The runner-up was Amsterdam’s UNStudio who built a pavilion in 2009 in Millennium Park for the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago. Another on a short-list was London’s Zaha Hadid Architects who also built a pavilion for the anniversary.

courtesy of mad architects

[ MAD Architects ] is a global architecture firm committed to developing futuristic, organic designs that embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern spirit of nature. MAD’s works incorporate sustainable design and advanced architecture technology to achieve harmony with natural and urban environments. With its core design philosophy of the “Shanshui City,” which is a perfect combination of city density, functionality and the artistic conception of natural landscape that aims at composing a future city that takes human spirit and emotion at their cores, MAD endeavors to create a new balance among society, the city and the environment through new forms of architecture. More than 80 architects from all over the world work in MAD’s offices in Beijing and Los Angeles.

courtesy of studio gang architects | ©sally ryan photography

[ Studio Gang Architects ] is a collective of 50-plus architects, designers, and thinkers whose work engages pressing contemporary issues and their impact on human experience. Honored with the 2013 National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the Studio acts as a laboratory—testing ideas on various scales, from cities and environments to material and physical properties. Cross-field research, collaboration, and iterative experimentation using both digital and analog technologies are integral to the Studio’s process. Each project is designed to resonate with its specific site and culture while addressing global themes such as reuse and sustainability. [ new yorker profile ]
[ VOA Architects ] is a 40-year-old nine-location global architectural design firm. VOA Associates, whose designs include Roosevelt University’s 32-story vertical campus in downtown Chicago and the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., will implement Mr. Ma’s design. “We will take the concept design and create a digital sculpture that will serve as the blueprint for construction,” said Michael Toolis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, VOA Associates. “Each aspect of the museum will be digitally created using technology that enables us to test daylight, create interactive models and examine how the design performs in different environments.”

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