Architect Creates LEGO Detroit

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After all the bad press Detroit has received in the last few years, it’s nice to see that the city continues to inspire architects. For Jim Garrett of Redford, Michigan, it has motivated him to pull out his childhood LEGO sets and spend months faithfully recreating scale models of his favorite Detroit buildings.

“Twelve of those buildings are replicas of real Detroit structures, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Public Library in Midtown and the Fisher Building in New Center. Most of his downtown Detroit buildings are on view at The Henry Ford this month. Even the old red sandstone Union Depot, which stood at the corner of Fort and Third until it was demolished in 1974, is on display.”

The 51-year-old Garrett has been known to clear out LEGO sections in toy stores whenever they go on clearance, but these days it’s easier to find what he needs on the internet. For these kinds of detailed projects, he suggests the site bricklink.com, “sells specialized pieces like arched windows in bulk.”

When constructing Detroit’s tallest Art Deco skyscraper, The Penobscot building, Garrett was relieved to find “LEGO made some grooved bricks that perfectly matched the detail on the actual building.”

“I bought almost the entire world’s supply at the time,” he said.

“It took eight months to erect the Penobscot’s 47 stories. The model is 9.5 feet to the roof and 11 feet to the tip of the red ball at the pinnacle.”

Donna Terek penned the original article for the Detroit News, and it includes a video of the exhibit which is worth a watch.

As Garrett wholeheartedly admits, “It’s my hope that people who aren’t familiar with Detroit will realize there’s more to Detroit than crime stories and bankruptcy. I’d like to think it will help them get an appreciation of Detroit’s architecture.”

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There are few things more beautiful than a city decked out for the Christmas holidays, and for that we thank the architects, engineers, urban planners, and designers. We wish all of our readers, friends, and followers a safe, peaceful holiday. All the best in 2014!

 

 

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We read the ArchDaily blog all year round, but last week’s fun, holiday post is worth mentioning here. (If only because they saved us the trouble of coming up with 13 excellent gift ideas for architects! Thanks, guys!)

From design apps to wall clocks to art prints, these ideas are all unique, all vibrant, and all good. If you’re wondering what to get for your favorite architect this year, check out ArchDaily’s Architect’s Holiday Gift Guide 2013.

And when the wrapping paper has been discarded and the tree hauled out to the curb for the Boy Scouts to collect, when 2014 dawns, make sure you visit ArchDaily again. They’re a fantastic source of relevant, inspiring industry news.

Much has been made in recent years about the low percentage of women in the engineering industry, but comparatively little progress has been made. The question remains: How do we encourage a young girl’s interest in designing, problem-solving, experimenting, developing, and building? Because if we can do that with the current generation of imaginative, technologically-inclined youngsters, there could well be a marked increase in the number of women who choose careers from among the broad range of engineering disciplines.

This new advertisement from GoldieBlox, which has “developed a set of interactive books and games to ‘disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers’”, is a fantastic start!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFpe3Up9T_g&w=640&h=360]

 

Set to the tune of the Beastie Boys’ famously catchy Girls, we see the execution of a fabulous Rube Goldberg machine as a trio of excited would-be engineers uses their perpetually pink toys to play a new version of house.

There may be many answers to the question of gender disparity in the engineering industry, but this is definitely one of the more fun, optimistic ones. Well done, GoldieBlox! And just in time for Christmas.

Fa-la-la-la-la La-la La LA!

Gingerbread used in architectural engineering competition

Tristen Black makes some repairs on her gingerbread building Thursday at the Tulsa Alliance for Engineering competition. She won first place in adult category. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
Tristen Black makes some repairs on her gingerbread building Thursday at the Tulsa Alliance for Engineering competition. She won first place in adult category. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World

Santa visits the Living Roof at the Cal Academy of Sciences

A pair of reindeer graze on the undulating 2.5-acre living roof that tops the Renzo Piano-designed museum. (In lieu of a chimney, Santa uses an operable skylight.) Photo courtesy of the Cal Academy of Sciences.
Reindeer graze on the undulating 2.5-acre living roof that tops the Renzo Piano-designed museum. (In lieu of a chimney, Santa uses an operable skylight.) Photo courtesy of world-architects eMagazine

Whether you celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, or anything else this season, we at a/e ProNet wish you a happy, safe holiday. We hope you spend it with the people you love.