November 18, 2014 – Rocco Buttliere has not rested since building Marina City last year. The architecture student at Illinois Institute of Technology has completed a stretch of riverfront that includes six buildings constructed at 1:650 scale from LEGO bricks.

Marina City, AMA Plaza, Trump International Hotel & Tower, Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and 35 East Wacker are now depicted.

It took Rocco five months to build a 14-inch-tall version of Marina City from approximate 5,000 LEGO pieces. He says the most challenging part of the model was the saddle-shaped roof of House of Blues.

(Above) Rocco Buttliere’s Marina City, as seen from the southwest (top photos) and south (bottom photo).

Besides special LEGO software to help him design each model, Buttliere travels to downtown Chicago to extensively photograph the actual skyscraper.

He now has LEGO models of 20 Chicago buildings. They were displayed last year at the 2013 Brickworld convention in Schaumburg and in February at One Prudential Plaza.

(Above) Adam Tucker’s LEGO versions of Marina City (left) and Tribune Tower in a window display of The Lego Store at Water Tower Place.

Meanwhile, architect Adam Tucker says his four-foot model of Marina City may soon be available for loan. His Marina City, built in 2008 from 12,000 LEGO pieces, has been displayed at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and is currently in a window display at The Lego Store on Level 2 of Water Tower Place on North Michigan Avenue.

Tucker, a LEGO Certified Professional, has built LEGO models of John Hancock Center, Trump International Hotel & Tower, and Willis Tower. He is also the lead designer of LEGO Architecture, a LEGO product line that, according to the company, “celebrates the past, present, and future of architecture.”

• Previous story about Rocco: Marina City LEGO model built with patience, improvisation
• Previous story about Adam: Chicago LEGO models still on D.C. tour