MAD's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Unveiled

Situated between Soldier Field on the north and the McCormick Place convention center on the south, the design rises from the landscape like an artificial mountain, culminating in an observation deck capped by a "floating" disc. The top of the disc is approximately 110 feet (33.5 meters), or roughly halfway between the 2003 Soldier Field addition (151 feet / 46 meters) and the 89-foot (27-meter) space-frame roof of McCormick Place. Inside will be three levels of exhibition space in "infinite loops," designed to "inspire the imagination to ponder endless possibilities, both in content and design," per a statement from the Lucas Museum. Windows are eschewed in favor of an opening at the top that will bring light to what Yansong calls the "urban living room" at the center of the museum.

Yansong's proposed addition to Chicago's Museum Campus would be an alien form in a city known for its skyscrapers and flatness. Rather than designing something respectively vertical or horizontal, Yansong has blended the two into diagonal slopes of stone whose only precedent could be perhaps the graceful ebb and flow of Chicago's skyline when seen from the campus. Whatever the case, the design is sure to meet its opponents – architectural critics, the non-profit Friends of the Park advocacy group, and Chicagoans, to name a few – as it tries to gain approval from the city on its march to realization.

Beijing-based MAD Architects was selected in July 2014 to design the museum, besting four other firms (only UNStudio is known from those) invited to submit proposals. MAD is working with Chicago's Studio Gang Architects on the landscape and a bridge connecting the museum to Northerly Island, also being designed by Jeanne Gang's firm. VOA Associates, also based in Chicago, will serve as the executive architect responsible for implementing MAD's design.

Ma Yansong speaks about the inspiration and vision for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art: