From Ma Yansong's visionary architecture to Studio-MLA's transformative gardens, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art emerges from Exposition Park in Los Angeles as a cultural landmark where art, nature, and community converge.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art sits on an 11-acre (4.5-hectare) campus landscaped with trees, gardens, walkways, and sculptures that complement the nearly 300,000-square-foot (27,870-square-meter) building. The five-story museum includes approximately 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters) of gallery space, two state-of-the-art theaters, and dedicated spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail, and special events.
Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA has taken what was once acres of parking and transformed it into a living, dynamic landscape that blooms with the colors of Southern California’s seasons. With native and drought-tolerant plantings, over 200 trees, and landforms that evoke Los Angeles as a series of valleys nestled between mountains, the gardens offer a distinct experience with each visit. Rolling fields, relaxing walking paths, and inviting gathering areas create much-needed shade and green space for South Los Angeles.
Long before the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art broke ground in March 2018, architect Ma Yansong envisioned an urban oasis of tree canopies and clouds when designing the building's sculptural form. The building's flowing outer surface is comprised of 1,300 unique fiberglass-reinforced polymer panels, each custom shaped and precisely placed. Some observers have remarked that something otherworldly is taking shape in South Los Angeles, as if a spaceship was being built from the ground up in Exposition Park.
This architectural marvel represents the culmination of a 15-year collaboration between the architect and the museum’s founders.
“[George] understands what I’m doing instinctively,” Ma said of his working relationship with Lucas. “Sometimes I don’t need to use words to explain. He can just feel it.”
Visitors enter the museum through a cathedral-like entrance, where converging arches soar overhead and three clear glass elevator tubes beckon you upward.
Modeled after the reference library at Skywalker Ranch, the museum’s horseshoe-shaped library serves as both a research center and a contemplative space. Home to resources on narrative art—from ancient cave paintings to contemporary digital media—the library supports scholars, students, and curious visitors alike.
Two state-of-the-art theaters, each personally programmed by George Lucas, offer cutting-edge projection and sound.
Located in South LA’s Exposition Park, the Lucas Museum provides remarkable opportunities to collaborate with other Los Angeles cultural institutions.
The 160 acres (65 hectares) of Exposition Park are home to cultural, educational, and recreational institutions, such as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California African American Museum, the California Science Center and Theodore J. Alexander Science Center School, the LA Memorial Coliseum, BMO Stadium, the Exposition Park Rose Garden, and EXPO Center.
