Wired 13.05: The New Heart of the Empire - George Lucas's gaming/effects factory

"Lucas built his upgraded gaming/film effects facility the same way he makes a movie - with a sweeping vision, an obsessive eye for detail, and a geek's reliance on computers. The 3-D simulations of the new San Francisco campus rivaled any of the pre-visualizations of Coruscant produced for the final chapter of the Star Wars saga. Architects created digital depictions of the lobby, soundstage, theater, and every room or office, realistic down to the fabric on the chairs and the lumens of the lightbulbs. Ever the auteur, Lucas approved each rendering himself - reviewing four or five possible setups for every site before picking his favorite.

When the production wraps in July, some 1,500 employees will move into the 850,000-square-foot, $350 million set that is the Letterman Digital Arts Center. Located on the former Presidio army base, the campus is a coming-out, a move away from Lucas' secretive Skywalker Ranch and stealth office park in San Rafael, California, to a public park at the base of the impossibly unstealth Golden Gate Bridge. Named after the hospital that formerly occupied the site, Letterman brings together three arms of the Empire that have long been separate: Industrial Light & Magic, the effects division; LucasArts, the gaming branch; and Lucasfilm's marketing, online, and licensing units." (full article at link)

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Lucas is the mighty 800 pound gorilla. Pixar was originally a part of his digital empire.
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