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Skywalker Ranch main house
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The Skywalker Sound building |
The magnificent employee research library |
A company wetspot:
Ewok Lake |
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| Movie history props on display |
More movie history props |
ILM isn't located on the Skywalker Ranch premises and the division moved from its "old" home in San Rafael in Marin County to Central San Fransisco in 2005. George Lucas acquired the right to redevelop a 23 acre lot at the former Presidio naval base in central San Fransisco in 1999 and he started the process to
relocate Lucasfilm, ILM, LucasArts, Lucas Learning Inc, Lucas Online and The George Lucas Learning Foundation to the new downtown compound. The Letterman Digital Arts Center opened officially on June 24, 2005.
Just to kill a potential rumor: the naming of the center is not a thinly veiled attempt to butter up TV talkshow host David Letterman.
The lot is the former hospital section of the Presidio grounds, named after Civil War surgeon Major Jonathan Letterman.
Digital model of the Letterman Digital Center Compound
This wonderful Holidays Greetings postcard by Ralph McQuarrie dates back to 1979 when ILM moved from Van Nuys to San Rafael.
Lucasfilm's equally wonderful 2005 Holiday Greetings Card (by Christian Alzmann) reflects the move to the Letterman compound. [Highly recommended: a visit to
this page at starwars.com for the in-depth story on the postcards.]
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| According to the movie credits and IMDb, sound production was done at Alcatraz Island in San Fransisco Bay. This page by the San Anselmo Historical Museum
says that the Lucasfilm sound division - then called Sprocket Systems - was located downtown San Anselmo and that sound editing for Empire was done at this location. According to the same page
Sprocket later moved to the Kerner complex. (Kerner is the compound in San Rafael that also used to house ILM. The name derives from the
front entrance sign: Kerner Co. (Click to see a pic of the discreet complex entrance. Snap by Eric Anderson. Kerner was the tenant before ILM moved in from Van Nuys and they never bothered to change the sign.)
Sprocket Systems later changed name to Skywalker Sound and was again relocated - this time to Skywalker Ranch. |
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