Rahm wants to demolish McCormick Place East for Lucas Museum

By John Dempsey, WLS-AM 890 News

(CHICAGO) Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to tear down the old McCormick Place Convention center east of Lake Shore Drive, to create space for a museum film director George Lucas wants to build in Chicago.

The Chicago Sun Times broke the story detailing how Emanuel’s plan is seen as a last-ditch effort to keep Lucas from locating the museum in another city, because of an ongoing legal battle against the original proposed museum site on a parking lot south of Soldier Field.

The group Friends of the Parks has filed a lawsuit to stop the project, and Emanuel is afraid Lucas will not want to wait till that legal issue is resolved.

The group’s argument is that by allowing the Lucas museum on the parking lot, the city would be surrendering control of prime lakefront property to a museum that is “not for the benefit of the public,” but would “promote private and/or commercial interests.”

To get around that argument, Emanuel would be proposing to build a building where another building already stands on the lakefront. Since the museum would be smaller than McCormick Place, it would result in an additional 12 acres of lakefront park space.

The Sun Times says the McCormick Place site already has underground parking for 2,000 vehicles as well as subterranean storage, heating and cooling systems, which would reduce the overall cost to Lucas.

To compensate for the massive loss of convention space, the report says Emanuel is proposing building a second floor over the street that connects the two newest convention center buildings.

Lucas wife is voicing support for Emanuel’s idea. Chicago businesswoman Mellody Hobson issued a statement saying “Similar to the current parking lot site, we believe McCormick Place would be an excellent location and extend the already world-class museum campus on Chicago’s lakefront to the South Side,” Lucas’ wife, Chicago businesswoman Mellody Hobson, said in a statement.

Hobson said she and her husband “remain hopeful about building the museum in the city of Chicago.”

Tags: