Friends Of The Parks Is Putting Its Lucas Museum Lawsuit On Hold

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on May 3, 2016 2:34PM

Designs for the Lucas Museum (Lucas Museum of Narrative Art)

Updated with information on new site at 11:40 a.m.: Friends of the Parks has been suing the city of Chicago for more than a year, trying to prevent the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art from getting built on a lakefront—but now that the city of Chicago is "prioritizing another site" for the museum, they've put that lawsuit on pause, the group announced in a statement Tuesday.

Kim Klein, FOTP's Director of Operations, confirmed to Chicagoist via email that the new site is McCormick Place East. Reports began circulating in April that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has shifted his museum-gaze towards McCormick Place, and away from the site that originally prompted FOTP's long-running lawsuit: a lakefront parking lot near Soldier Field that could, theoretically, become a park later.

The stay in FOTP's lawsuit—k—"gives all parties the opportunity to have a more direct and productive dialogue to reach a potential solution about a museum site," the group said in a statement.

However, they also feel an "absolute duty" to fight to protect the lakefront and its parking lots, and they specified that they could still restart their lawsuit if necessary.

George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, has been trying to build his museum in Chicago ever since legal struggles hamstrung the project in his first-choice city: San Francisco. Emanuel has worried to reporters that Lucas could take his museum elsewhere if Chicagoans don't get on board, but Lucas hasn't given up on Chicago yet, it seems.

We reached out to Friends of the Park to find out which site the city is now focusing on for the museum, and will update this post if we hear back.