Building Marina City – One LEGO at a time

Feb. 10, 2008 – He has built Sears Tower, John Hancock Center, and Trump International Hotel & Tower. Now, Adam Tucker is working on Marina City – a four-foot version made of LEGO bricks.

The 36-year-old architect quit his day job recently to pursue a serious interest in LEGO toy bricks. He’s built 16 skyscrapers, with Sears Tower installed most recently – earlier this month in a lobby of the Sears Tower near the Skydeck elevators. Photo by Adam Tucker

Tucker says he “captures the essence of a landmark into its pure sculptural form,” and so the Marina City structure includes just the residential towers. The balconies have been the most challenging part, he says, because the pieces he needs are no longer manufactured. However, The LEGO Group, based in Denmark, has been helping get pieces to Tucker.

Tucker has been working on Marina City for about a month. He estimates it will be completed in time for BrickWorld 2008, a large exhibit of LEGO structures scheduled for June 19-22 at the Westin North Shore Hotel in Wheeling, Illinois.

When completed, the Marina City model will contain 12,000 pieces and be worth, figures Tucker, $10,000.

He got the idea to do this professionally in 2002 after reading a book about LEGO toys. In 2006, he started Brickstructures to design and construct large-scale commissioned skyscraper models. He has worked on models of buildings outside of Chicago, such as World Trade Center, St. Louis Arch, and Empire State Building.

  Brickstructures web site

  BrickWorld 2008