Tom Hanks Helps Unveil Restored Academy Museum Building

MIRACLE MILE (CBSLA) — Tuesday night the future Academy Museum of Motion Pictures celebrated a milestone on the Miracle Mile.

Three years and hundreds of millions of dollars after work started, the exterior of the restored 1939 May Company Building at Wilshire and Fairfax was displayed for all to see.

The gold cylinder is made of 350,000 different tiles -- much of it real 24 karat gold.

"What a night this is," said Tom Hanks. "You are all going to remember where you were."

Academy A-listers led by Hanks and museum experts have been working to restore the building.

"We were able to preserve about 90 percent of what you see here today," said preservation expert John Fidler. "We sourced materials from where they were originally made, including the mosaic on the southwest corner here which is from Italy. From Venice. It's a special building for Los Angeles. I'm very proud at what we were able to achieve."

The nearly $400 million museum is set to be a new Hollywood landmark.

"It's almost more than a museum. There will be so many different things. First of all for a film museum you really have to have great theaters so you can show films the way they were meant to be seen," said Kerry Brougher, museum director.

The museum is scheduled to open late next year.