First Peek At Lucas Museum Unveiled

(CBS) -- The privately financed lakefront museum of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas moved a little closer to reality this week with the release of artist conceptualizations.

Organizers of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art posted illustrations of what the design will like, near Soldier Field and McCormick Place.

"The Lucas Museum design is both futuristic and timeless. Its continuous, undulating organic surface blurs the line between structure and landscape. As the harbor rises up to the land, it merges with stone surfaces that reach up to the sky and ultimately crescendo into a 'floating disc,'" the museum's website says.

The design is by Ma Yansong and Beijing-based MAD Architects.

Lucas, a renegade filmmaker-turned-billionaire, has promised he will finance the museum, which will include "Star Wars" props and memorabilia, and the endowment that will be necessary to maintain it.

The estimated $300 million project will rise in a parking lot between Soldier Field and McCormick Place, as soon as 2018. Lucas initially sought to build the attraction in San Francisco, but ended up selecting Chicago in part because his wife, Mellody Hobson, is from that city.