Chicago is getting its first glance at what the George Lucas Museum might look like.
Plans for the upcoming attraction were released Monday, showcasing 21st-century architecture rising up from what is now a parking lot.
The design, resembling a spaceship, is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van Der Rohe, according to the Lucas Museum website.
“The design integrates the natural beauty of the park and Lake Michigan with the powerful man-made architecture of Chicago,” the website read.
The seven-level, 400,000 square-foot building’s tallest point will be a circular observation deck with 360-degree views and its surface will be made from a single material — “a stone as primitive as it is futuristic.”
“I think it’s nice,” said Chicagoan Ainsworth Thompson. “It will blend in with architecture already here in the city.”
Some in the city, however, say the site along the lakefront in Chicago’s Museum Campus is not optimal for the new feature.
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“It is clear that the proposed design nets a lot less open green space than originally promised — and much less functional open space at that,” Cassandra Francis, president of Friends of the Parks, said in a statement.
Francis called the design a “land-eating colossus.”
“The renderings also demonstrate the building is much bigger than originally indicated, taller than McCormick Place East and almost as tall as the addition to Soldier Field,” she said. “With all the brilliant architects working on this, we hope that they will see the advantages of siting the museum on an alternate site as we believe the design would make more of a statement on a deck above the 31st Street truck marshalling yard or the Michael Reese Hospital site, and with much less public controversy. Ultimately, we don’t want to look back on this design and regret a hasty decision to sacrifice our lakefront, Chicago’s greatest natural asset.”
