The Letterman Digital Arts Center (LDAC), is an institution located in the Presidio,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, that has served as the combined home of

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

, Lucasfilm Games, Lucasfilm Animation and

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

's marketing, online, and licensing units since 2005.

History

Opening ceremonies were held June 25, 2005. The $350 million, 850,000 square foot (79,000 m) center is home to 1,500 employees, who began moving there in July, 2005. The grounds were designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who has also restored San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square. The design architect for the buildings was

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $1.785 billion in revenue, the most o ...

, and

architect of record Architect of record is the architect or architecture firm whose name appears on a building permit issued for a specific project on which that architect or firm performed services. Issuance of building permits Building permits are issued by a ...

was HKS, Inc. The Lobby of Building B is open to the public during regular business hours and contains a gallery of Lucasfilm memorabilia including props and costumes from the ''Star Wars'' film series. On the patio near the entrance to Building B is a

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

featuring a life-sized statue of

Yoda Yoda () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is a small, green humanoid alien who is powerful with the Force. He first appeared in the 1980 film '' The Empire Strikes Back'', in which he is voiced and puppeteered by F ...

. The Presidio is a former U.S. Army base. The arts center takes its name from its location on the former site of the army's Letterman Army Hospital, which was named for Dr. Jonathan Letterman, medical director for the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the Battle of ...

in the U.S. Civil War. The building earned a LEED Gold certification. One of the reasons was the building was built from the recycled remains of the building it replaced, the Letterman Army Hospital.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.onelettermandrive.com/
Lucasfilm.com: Letterman Digital and New Media Arts Center

Lucasfilm website

360 panorama of Letterman Digital Arts Center Campus
Lucasfilm Disney production studios Office buildings in San Francisco Cinema of the San Francisco Bay Area Presidio of San Francisco Buildings and structures completed in 2005 2005 establishments in California