Sleek, Cloudlike and Modern - Page 2

Lucas is also a primary donor of items to the museum, which is planned to include daily film screenings and works by Degas, Renoir, Winslow Homer, and Norman Rockwell.

Although Yu was not at liberty to answer any design or specification questions on the two current proposals, he did share some details about how the Yale-trained Yansong was selected by Lucas for the job in 2014. An architect himself trained in Copenhagen and China, Yu said Lucas "did a lot of research of all the museums," particularly those with innovative designs.

In doing so, the Marin resident and his museum team came across the 41,000-square-foot Ordos Museum in Kangbashi, China. Yansong designed the museum, which opened in 2011 and exhibits the history and culture of the Inner Mongolian city and region.

"That's how he got shortlisted," Yu said of the geometric yet cloudlike structure. He later expanded this reveal to say, "That's the one that really got us in on the project."

Both competing plans are projected to be in the neighborhood of 270,000 interior square feet. The L.A. site is on a main thoroughfare into Exposition Park, not far from the 93-year-old L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

The Treasure Island site is four acres at the south end of the man-made island, next to a planned ferry terminal, in the middle of the world's most famous bay. The project will require moving the historic chapel of the decommissioned Navy base.

Nevertheless, the director of the Treasure Island Development Authority, Bob Beck, recently told the San Francisco Chronicle that the museum "fits well with the plans for the island, and the overall programs we're trying to have here."

So, maybe the man born and raised in Modesto stays home with his latest big project. Ooh, then it could be like American Graffiti, where Ronnie Howard stays home, and Richard Dreyfuss goes off to Canada to waste his time as, um, a writer.