The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has decided to move forward with a project that has been talked about for years: a movie museum, which will be a joint project with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the L.A. Times reports.

The museum will be located in the former May Co. building, a landmark at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue that’s instantly recognized for its distinctive gold column.

According to the Times piece: “The decision to set the museum in the 1939 art deco building, which sits next to LACMA, represents something of a turnabout for the academy, which spent close to $50 million in 2005 to purchase a multi-acre plot of land on Vine Street in Hollywood next to the Mary Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.

“The academy had hired French architect Christian de Portzamparc but was unable to move forward on the ambitious project when it failed to raise the roughly $350 million to $400 million in necessary funds.”

LACMA and the Academy will join forces on fundraising efforts this time around, the story reports, with initial steps already under way.

Terry Semel, co-chair of the LACMA board, said: "The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will provide a much needed destination for cultural tourists and Los Angelenos to learn more about cinema, and the setting could not be more ideal, nestled next to the largest encyclopedic art museum in the Western United States.”

May Co. building, Los Angeles