Plan For Lucas Museum Chicago

McCormick Place East demolition plan could be 'last-ditch' effort to keep Lucas Museum - Mayor Rahm Emanuel is making a last-ditch push to keep George Lucas' museum in Chicago, a plan that relies on tearing down McCormick Place's aging lakefront convention hall but risks running into the same legal hurdles that allowed park preservationists to tie up the mayor's first attempt.

The plan, which was coming into focus Friday, has the backing of the Star Wars creator, who wants to build a museum along the city's picturesque Lake Michigan shoreline showcasing his art and film collection. Left unclear by the Emanuel administration is how the city would replace the lost convention center space, how much that would cost and who would pay for it.

The latest idea calls for the futuristically designed and privately funded Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to be built on the foundation of a demolished convention space, shifting the stalled project from the proposed location south of Soldier Field. That original plan, announced in 2014, has city approval but is held up in federal court, where the nonprofit Friends of the Parks sued on grounds that the project violates the public trust doctrine.

Mellody Hobson, Lucas' wife and a Chicago investment firm executive instrumental to museum planning, said the new proposal, which includes 12 acres of parkland and 700 new trees, is a way to keep the museum here without upsetting those worried about the shoreline environment.