Most people have created something out of Lego blocks at some point in their life, be it something small and simple like a Lego cottage, or large and complicated like Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon. At the very least, you have probably felt the wrath of one of your kid’s stray blocks, stepping on it as you walked barefoot through the house at midnight.
Regardless, Legos are typically thought of as toys or hobbies, but Adam Reed Tucker, a former architect whose business was decimated by the poor economy, is creating architectural mirabilia out of these colorful plastic blocks worthy of their own exhibit at one of the top museums in the country.
As The Chicago Tribune reports, Tucker has an estimated 9 million Lego bricks at his Chicago-area home that he uses to build his displays. His first creation was the product of a day sitting in Barnes & Noble thinking about what he wanted to do with his life after his firm closed. He wanted to work with his hands, and remembered he was good at making models as an architecture student.
His next stop was Toys R Us, where he purchased a Hogwarts Lego set and used the provided pieces to make a replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. These smaller projects grew into larger ones, such as an 8-foot-tall model of One World Trade Center (with one side left exposed to show how the building was made and why it collapsed), until, eventually, he was using tens of thousands of Lego blocks on one project alone.
Currently, Tucker has 13 pieces - and 310,000 blocks - on display at the Museum of Science and Industry as part of his “Brick by Brick” exhibit. Each piece in the exhibit shares the common theme of being an architectural wonder, such as a 60-foot-long replica of the Golden Gate Bridge created from an estimated 64,500 bricks, a Roman coliseum constructed of 22,500 bricks and shown in a cutaway to expose its manner of construction, and a Hoover Dam meant to mimic its appearance in old black and white photos.
Tucker has three more exhibits planned; one that focuses on the story of the industrial revolution, one focused on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and one that puts Walt Disney’s work on center stage.
Click here to view images from the “Brick by Brick” exhibit.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Wisconsin becomes the first state to require BIM on public projects
As of July 1, the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities will require all state projects with a total budget of $5 million or more and all new construction with a budget of $2.5 million or more to have their designs begin with a Building Information Model. The new guidelines and standards require A/E services in a design-bid-build project delivery format to use BIM and 3D software from initial ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Opening night close for Kent State performing arts center
The curtain opens on the Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center at Kent State University in early 2010, giving the New Philadelphia, Ohio, school a 1,100-seat multipurpose theater. The team of Legat & Kingscott of Columbus, Ohio, and Schorr Architects of Dublin, Ohio, designed the 50,000-sf facility with a curving metal and glass façade to create a sense of movement and activity.
| Aug 11, 2010
Residence hall designed specifically for freshman
Hardin Construction Company's Austin, Texas, office is serving as GC for the $50 million freshman housing complex at the University of Houston. Designed by HADP Architecture, Austin, the seven-story, 300,000-sf facility will be located on the university's central campus and have 1,172 beds, residential advisor offices, a social lounge, a computer lab, multipurpose rooms, a fitness center, and a...
| Aug 11, 2010
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
| Aug 11, 2010
Luxury Hotel required faceted design
Goettsch Partners, Chicago, designed a new five-star, 214-room hotel for the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design-build project, with Saudi Oger Ltd. as contractor and Rayadah Investment Co. as developer, has a three-story podium supporting a 17-story glass tower with a nine-story opening that allows light to penetrate the mass of the building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Three Schools checking into L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel site
Pasadena-based Gonzalez Goodale Architects is designing three new schools for Los Angeles Unified School District's Central Wilshire District. The $400 million campus, located on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, will house a K-5 elementary school, a middle school, a high school, a shared recreation facility (including soccer field, 25-meter swimming pool, two gymnasiums), and a new publ...
| Aug 11, 2010
New Jersey's high-tech landscaping facility
Designed to enhance the use of science and technology in Bergen County Special Services' landscaping programs, the new single-story facility at the technical school's Paramus campus will have 7,950 sf of classroom space, a 1,000-sf greenhouse (able to replicate different environments, such as rainforest, desert, forest, and tundra), and 5,000 sf of outside landscaping and gardening space.
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
