LEGO Skylines
 

I was wondering if anyone has pictures of building models made from legos?
p.s I hope I’m not copying someone else’s thread.

Kevin is THE man when it comes to lego cities. Wait for it...

You rang?

Here are two shots from last week. I updated the model at the request of a local developer who is planning a 400 foot residential highrise in downtown. He bought the Legos, I did the model, he photographed it, and the photos were on the City of Austin's access channel. The photos were included in the developer's presentation for the building before City Council. The building was approved. They'll break ground in 5 months.

Let me know if these photos work.

Here's an "aerial" view. Me up on a 6 foot step ladder looking over the model.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2...829editsh4.jpg

>>>>Scroll>>>>

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/594...egopanosl4.jpg

Thanks Kevin this is exactly what I was wanting.

kevin do you have any more?

Must of had lots of fun. Nice real cool

Yes, I do. What are you needing them for? What are you looking for?

Here are a few more. Let me know what you're looking for and what you need them for.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5...648editcp4.jpg

Frost Bank Tower view.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4...875edittv8.jpg

Those new towers make Frost Tower look not-as-good. :(

It should have been built taller in the first place.

kevin i'm hoping to become a developer in abilene and i was hoping if this actually works in gettimg an idea across.

What Kevin is doing is trying to create an entire downtown in Lego bricks.

I have taken a different approach. By building in what is called "minifig" scale (about 1/48 scale - based on the height of the chubby little Lego people), I can show details such as the individual windows and doors. Unfortunately unless someone pays me and lets me use a space the size of a stadium (for free), I will not be able to build an entire downtown. Dispite this, I am hoping to build many of the significant structures of Detroit.

Since I started building about 3 years ago, I have built one large structure a year (plus several small to medium size buildings).

2005: The 28 story Fisher Building:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/3...2c6fa2a6_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim/398371952/

2006: The 37 story David Stott Building:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...a992e275_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim/324881171/

2007: The 47 story Penobscot Building (still under construction):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/3...5facf517_o.jpg

After I completed the Fisher Building model, I found out about the Michigan Lego Train Club (MichLUG.org) and I joined it. This gives me the opportunity to display my Lego buildings as part of a complete city.

This is a picture from a show MichLTC did on March 3-4, 2007 at the Rock Financial Center in Novi, Michigan (a Detroit suburb):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/4...6088f519b5.jpg
(the buiding in the right-center foreground is a scaled-down replica of New York's Flatiron building by another club member).

A 600+ storey supertall that went all the way as high as I could stretch until I just gave out.
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9995/91626888ki9.jpg

We didn't have all the fancy shapes and colors like you guys do now. We had to tough it out. We were the pioneers :D

Then I tried with Tinker Toys, but couldn't buld those too tall
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/184/80179741xc0.jpg http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9553/60907076fp9.jpg

woow!! how did you get those type of legos?
i dont think you can buy those type of legos at a local store

I have a few buildings right now that I have had for a while, and I plan on building a good sized city this summer, at which time I will most likely create a thread with pics. (No use posting anything right now, there's nothing special or amazing, just a few big squares.)

i've seen an e-mail where someone built a church and it was scale to the lego people. thanks DecoJim for the pics.

Well, I think it does. I'm not sure of the exact scale of my models, but I do know they are to scale. I researched the street width information from the City of Austin. Most downtown streets in Austin are 80 feet wide, that includes 44 feet of lanes, (curb to curb), the rest is sidewalks. For the block sizes I've measured those with GoogleEarth. I'm also an editor at Emporis which is a website that catalogs skyscrapers from around the world. I work on most of Texas there. I collect building heights as a hobby so the heights of the buildings are correct. Most of the heights have come straight from the building's blueprints. In collecting the heights I also ask for building widths which further help in modeling them. To do the model I use GoogleEarth for images, Live Local Search, various other aerial photographs where I can find them. I also use books, magazines, calendars, postcards, and of course my own pictures. I also go downtown and sketch out the block that I'm planning on modeling. So when I do it I've got images of that block from all angles and levels.

I include everything in the model. Not just the skyscrapers, but also all the smaller older buildings. All the little 2-story historic buildings from as far back as the 1850s. Austin also has what we call "Moonlight Towers", these are 165 foot light towers that were bought and installed by the City of Austin back in 1895. They're national historic landmarks. There's 17 of them remaining out of 31 original towers. These are all over downtown and Central Austin, Central South Austin and Central East Austin, (near downtown). I include those to help with the realism. I'm also planning on adding light rail once it comes to downtown. Those will just show up as small "slats" on the street. Since the trains are fairly large, about ~10 to 12 feet tall and ~ 60 feet long, I want to include them.

A developer in Austin contacted me about using Legos as a visual reference for their project. He wanted to show people how the building would appear on the skyline in that area of downtown compared to other nearby highrises, and others that are also being planned nearby. The project is a 390 to 400 foot condominium tower that is planned for an area of downtown that is bounded to the north by old historic homes, (from the 1860s to 1880s), that have been restored and reused as light commercial space. Mostly law firms and other small office space. To the south and west there are a lot of restaurants and other small offices. To the east and southeast there are 2 taller towers planned by another developer, and to the east the main bulk of Austin's downtown skyline. There was some controversy about this project because area business owners, (just a handful), didn't like the height. They said it didn't fit the neighborhood and they wanted it scaled back to 120 feet. That would have meant a mid-rise tower that would have covered half the block, instead of 1/4. It also meant that a very popular restaurant, (Ranch 616), would have been demolished to make room for the tower. So the developer contacted me about doing the model for them. I agreed, and he purchased the Legos, dropped them off at my house, and I worked on the model for 4 1/2 days straight to get it done. He came and photographed it, and I got to keep the Legos. I'll also get a tour of the building during construction.

The important part is that the photos were used in the developer's presentation before city council, (the images were also on the city's tv station). The tower was approved at 400 feet tall on the 2nd & 3rd reading. They plan to break ground in 5 months after they have their permits and demolition of the site is complete.

The developer, Rick Hardin, seemed to be very pleased with the job I did on the model. He told me that I should get it put on display somewhere possibly at city hall or at a museum.

I can put you in touch with him if you'd like. He can give you his thoughts on how effective the model was.

I'm curious, is your project a highrise for Abilene's downtown area? Or elsewhere? I have a bunch more photos of the model, atleast over 200 of them. Let me know what kind of angles you're looking for, and I'll post a few more if need be.

I hope this helps.

sweet son of a whore. those are impressive

yea thats nuts... the big ones are unreal.


Kevin have you even thought of panting yours? That could be awesome. :yes:

nice work guys

the lego david scott building looks better than the real thing

Abilene is having somewhat of a banking boom; I think this because new banks are springing up all over town but not in downtown. So I’m hoping to develop south downtown into a central banking part of Abilene because there are so many old warehouses that could be remolded into offices or into a new building. I feel models give a better look at future building projects.

p.s. I started this thread because I love both legos and building. So I put to loves together and made my own city. I was just wondering in anyone else does this?

^ Yep! That's when I first discovered my love for architecture, as a little kid, while my brothers built castles and dinosaurs and spaceships with legos, I built cities with skyscrapers.

All of the Lego bricks used in my buildings can be purchased as part of sets at stores such as Toys R Us that sell Lego. The only problem is that when building a large structure, you may need many of one type of brick. That is where http://www.bricklink.com comes in handy. You can also check eBay (some people are selling specific lots of Lego instead of the more usual "this is my kid's old Lego collection").

John (and Kevin):
You should definitely look at the amazing work of a friend of mine. My own buildings are in too big a scale to use for city planning but Spencer Rezkall has been developing many extraordinarily detailed "micro-scale" skyscraper models out of Lego:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sr...ers/poster.jpg
Photo montage by Spencer: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2358691
(you can use this link to access additional photos of his models).

His Sears Tower model is about 2 feet high and yet uses over 4000 small Lego parts. The scale is larger than Kevin's Austin skyline, but nevertheless Spencer has talked about trying to do all of southern Manhattan. He gets all his parts from bricklink.com

When building a Lego skyline, I recommend trying to get the color as close as possible to the real structures (the Lego company makes several dozen colors of Lego now compared to about 6 colors in the 1970s).

this is like the stuff Buddy the Elf did in Elf

That scene in Elf when they fight around the Lego display at the department store gave me nightmares!

man that is awesome I want my own little city to play with :(

SHARE!! :(

Man if I had money I would so do that.

DecoJim, mad props for that David Scott Building model. That is a beauty! Are you ever going to do the Guadian Building? My personal Detroit favorite!

Thanks Kevin!

The Guardian Building is a natural for a Lego model if the scale is large enough. The stepped arches and the multitude of miniture setbacks near the top all lend themselves to Lego brick construction. The main obsticles are time and money. The David Stott building model took several months to complete and cost over $1,000. I estimate that a Guardian Building model in the same scale would cost at least four times as much. Another problem would be getting enough of the dark orange brick (I do not paint Lego bricks!). I purchased about 2/3 of all of the then available supply of dark orange bricks from Bricklink.com (the quantities have since recovered). In other words it might take years to get the parts (unless I can appeal directly to the Lego company).

If I do build it, I will let you know!

Yeah, painting Legos is out. :haha: I've never done anything like that other than to write on some of the little flags. But nothing beyond that. I have used decals from other models to put on my model cars, but that's about it. This is one more thing I like about modeling skyscrapers using Legos. It's not always an easy thing to do and there's always the chance that a building could be unbuildable. Some buildings that are round are pretty much off limits to being able to be built. I've gotten better with angles and different ways of acchieving setbacks, though.

My greatest fear came to life. I finished building my city on a coffee table and my dog, Stogie, walks by and nocks it over with his tail. Talk about a disaster at home.

If I can recover from this:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/De...ercollapse.jpg
(my first attempt at the Fisher Building was not strong enough)

...and this:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/De...mra_damage.jpg
(after a train show someone used a section of my Fisher Building to break his fall; you can see the hole where his hand went through the roof).

...then you should be able to rebuild!

The trick I use to prevent dogs (I have three) from damaging my Lego buildings is to make the buildings bigger and heavier than the dogs.

i would make my buildings bigger and heavier but i have a 110 lb lab and i don't have that many legos.

No offense Deco Jim, but those two last photos of the carnage are actually kind of cool. :D I know you are a master builder, so repairs shouldn't be a big challenge.

I've said this before, but your work is excellent. I look forward to seeing more.

So if that attempt wasn't strong enough, did any bricks suffer any actual physical damage when it all went south?

/proud 4 (or 5, if you count consecutive days) time visitor of Lego-land in Billund.

I do not think any bricks were damaged. When the building section hit the ground it appears that the kinetic energy was absorbed by the seperation of all the bricks rather than by just the bricks at the point of contact with the floor . In contrast my Lego User Group (MichLUG.org) was working on a project a few years ago for Kellogs Cereal City Museum (now closed) that included a 7 foot high Tony the Tiger made of Lego. The contract specified that it be glued since the statue would be exposed to direct contact with children (one of the most destructive forces known). Anyway, someone dropped a hand that had been glued together and since there was no "give" to it, several bricks were severly damaged and had to be replaced (a lot of work since the glue had already set).

I did learn from my Fisher Building disaster however.
1. I removed from the building all of my old Lego bricks that dated from my childhood (those bricks are older than many SSP forumers) because they were worn and caused weak points in the building.
2. I built stronger the second time with better constructed walls and more internal bracing.
3. No one will punch a hole in the Fisher Building roof again because the entire roof section is now solid Lego!



Surprisingly, I have never been to a Legoland and have only been to one Lego store (Michigan Ave store in Chicago).


Wolverine, I take no offense at all. I simply made a Lego engineering mistake and I learned from it and moved on. It was a classic blessing in disguise because if that collapse had occured while I was setting up for a public exhibit such as at a train show.... :hell:
Also, thanks for the compliment!


John_mClark, it looks like you need to purchase more Lego!:D
I have a relatively small house and small yard and a 110 pound would not have sufficent room to roam; therefore my dogs are small and are not a danger to my 230 pound Fisher Building.

There are few things out there in LegoLand more amazing than those skyscrapers. Absolutely incredible :tup: .

Oh no!! What a tragic collapse! I'm glad to see it didn't throw you off though, and you persisted with rebuilding it. I don't think I could ever have that kind of perseverance. :tup:

That sucks DecoJim.

I have some Lego skyscrapers which are my own design, nothing major, just tall narrow towers which are built in part with Legos and Duplos. My cat Mittens, who passed away last year, would knock them over a few times. I have them up on a table, "The Lego Table". I'd put them all back together within an hour. They aren't very intricate, atleast nothing like what you have, but a few are tall, the tallest being 53 inches. Now days with my new cat Jules, and my dog Sophie, they still run around on the Lego table but don't really knock anything over and the table and buildings are sturdy enough that they don't fall from them running on the table. My cat weighs 15 pounds, and my dog Sophie is an 11 pound Miniature Poodle. My "skyline" of my own towers weigh about as much my cat and dog combined, so even with both of them on the table, they're fine. My cat sleeps on the table and they both eat there also. My Lego table sort of doubles as a desk in my room.

The two accidents I had with the Fisher Building only comprised about 20% of the entire structure each time. My choice was of either rebuilding 20% or tearing down 80%. I do not give up after one little reverse! Like I said previously, it actually helped because I rebuilt it stronger which reduced a likelyhood of a repeat.

I have recently completed a sixth building for my Lego Detroit - a early 20th century factory building:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/4...ec4e841de9.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim/439203281/

At the rate I am going, it will take only about 100 years to get a decent downtown built.

Wow, that looks great!

Nice job. I really like that sign. I see you have the Lego truck, too. ;) I built a trailer for mine. I cut out a Lego logo from one of my old catalogs and attached it with special tape the to trailer. It looks great.

my buildings are no where as big as those. mine are more like kevins

Jim, Thanks for the plug.

For those that are interested, the five Lego skyscraper models pictured above will be on display next Saturday (March 24th) from 11am-6pm at the annual Brickbash event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The tallest model, the Sears Tower, is 27" to the roof, and all five models are all properly scaled in size relative to one another (or at least within the limits of what's possible with the Lego modeling medium).

The Brickbash event is open to the public and admission is free. Click the event link for directions and more details.

Good stuff, jsr. Brilliant design on the sunken plaza for the John Hancock Center...

http://www.brickstructures.com/files/bstructarticle.pdf

... roughly 8.6MB, so the pdf may take a little while to load for some.

This is my lego skyscraper :)

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...om/Legolol.jpg

And I built it in my class at uni :D

It is expected to reach the top of the ceiling by the end of this week.

Interesting article. While this builder's skyscrapers are pretty impressive, his claims to have developed a structural system are perhaps less impressive.
I could be wrong but it seems that Lego technic beams connected together using the multi-studded 1x1 bricks would not hold up very well under tensile stress (which may result when a force acts upon one side of the building - some beams are under compression others are under tension). UNLESS THEY ARE GLUED!

I make no pretense that I construct my structures in a prototypical manner. In fact they are probably built in a method closer to that of the older masonary high-rise structures such as the original Monadnock Building in Chicago (it has very thick load-bearing walls).

Real skyscrapers are not required to be portable. Mine do have to be and this would be a major problem if the building was constructed with a frame and curtain wall. The question would be: How to separate the frame into portable sections and still maintain strength?

* * *

I am not the only one building large Lego skyscrapers for display in a train layout. Here is a shot I took of part of the Central Ohio Lego Train Club layout at the 2005 NMRA National Train Show in Cincinnati:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/De...05/coltc07.jpg
Skyscraper buffs should be able to recognize some of the buildings or at least the city.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...s/DSCN0948.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...s/DSCN0949.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...s/DSCN0951.jpg

That's awesome Kevin.

Here's one shot from my childhood Lego days.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...neral/Lego.jpg