After months of suspense, Angelenos got the answer they were hoping for: filmmaker George Lucas will build his $1-billion Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the "Star Wars" creator has selected Exposition Park as the site of his privately-funded legacy project, which will boast a 10,000-piece collection and an endowment in excess of $400 million.  The L.A. bid edged out a competing proposal from San Francisco, which had offered Lucas a waterfront location on the city's manmade Treasure Island.

In wooing the legendary director, Los Angeles officials marketed the Exposition Park site for its close proximity to public transportation and other major museums.  The adjacency of USC, Lucas' alma mater, also proved alluring.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a press release "L.A. is gaining a new jewel with the breathtaking Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — and its presence here means that a day at Exposition Park will soon bring unrivaled opportunities to be immersed in stories told on canvas and celluloid, be moved by the richness of African-American history and expression, be awed by the wonders of science and the natural world, take a journey to the world of space exploration, and sit in the stands for a world-class sporting event."

Chinese architect Ma Yansoung has been commissioned to design the approximately 312,000-square-foot facility, which renderings portray as a spaceship-like structure with undulating metal skin, landscaped terraces and park space.

The project is one of several in the changing landscape of Exposition Park, following the $350-million Banc of California Stadium now rising on Figueroa Street.