Lucas Museum Opens in Los Angeles as a New Landmark by Ma Yansong
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has opened in Los Angeles, introducing a major new cultural building in Exposition Park designed by Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects.
The museum occupies a 13-acre campus with landscaped gardens by Mia Lehrer and Studio-MLA. Its main building spans about 300,000 square feet across five levels, including more than 100,000 square feet of galleries, two cinematic theaters, learning spaces, retail areas, dining venues, and public gathering spaces.
The architecture is presented as a sculptural, organic form shaped by light, clouds, and the surrounding tree canopy. Raised above the ground, the building is intended to engage the street and preserve views across Exposition Park while forming a civic place around art, film, and public memory.
The campus also adds more than 200 trees, native and drought-tolerant planting, rainwater capture for irrigation, roof-mounted solar panels, and a fountain system that contributes to renewable cooling. These landscape and environmental elements turn a former asphalt lot into a public cultural setting for South Los Angeles.
Inside, the museum is dedicated to narrative art, from illustration and comics to cinematic archives and visual storytelling. Its opening adds a new architectural destination to Exposition Park, alongside several existing cultural institutions and public venues.
