LEGO Architecture - LEGO® House

My last video for 2017.

Even though this is officially part of the LEGO Architecture line, the set is sold exclusively by surrounding stores in Billund, Denmark starting in 2017 commemorating the opening of the LEGO House in September.

Construction started in 2014. The building officially opened in September 28th, 2017. The building functions as part public art piece, tourist attraction, LEGO store, cafe, and with roughly 20,000 square feet set aside for open space.

21037 - LEGO Architecture - LEGO® House

From the very beginning, the ambition with LEGO® House was to create a unique and inspiring, hands-on and minds-on experience, where LEGO fans of all ages could learn all
about the company and the endless play possibilities offered by LEGO bricks.

It was quickly agreed that the right location would be in the center of Billund. This is where the LEGO story started almost 90 years ago and the town still serves as the global
headquarters of the LEGO Group. Then came the task of finding a partner who could design a distinctive building that would become an integral part of the LEGO House experience.

The idea for the LEGO® House was to create “a cloud of interlocking LEGO bricks... a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the LEGO brick.” 21 white bricks would be stacked on top of each other and be crowned by the Keystone, which would be inspired by the classic eight-knob LEGO brick.

These huge bricks will not only form internal spaces for LEGO House activities, but also create a covered public square and a series of interconnected terraces and playgrounds for people to investigate and enjoy. In this way, the LEGO House will be enjoyed both by fans who came to experience the LEGO story and by local citizens and visitors to the town of Billund.

I'm done.

LEGO Architecture - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2017)

They remade the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum set from 2009. this time with more parts and about 3 times as big.

In June 1943, Frank Lloyd Wright was asked by Hilla Rebay, the art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, to design a new building to house Guggenheim’s four-year-old Museum of Non-Objective Painting.

The project would evolve into a complex struggle pitting the architect against his clients, city officials, the art world and public opinion. It would take over 15 years, 700 sketches and seven complete sets of working drawings before Wright’s vision would be realized and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum would open its doors for the first time in 1959. By then both Guggenheim and Wright had died.

The location of the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets is not accidental. Its proximity to Central Park was key; as close to nature as one can get in New York, the park affords relief from the noise and congestion of the city.

Nature not only provided the museum with a respite from New York’s distractions, but also lent it inspiration. The Guggenheim Museum is an embodiment of Frank Lloyd Wright’s attempts to utilize organic forms in architecture.

But even as it embraced nature, Wright’s design also expresses his unique take on modernist architecture’s rigid geometry. The building is a symphony of triangles, ovals, arcs, circles and squares.

Wright dispensed with the conventional approach to museum design, which led visitors through a series of interconnected rooms. Instead, he whisked people to the top of the building via elevator and led them downward at a leisurely pace on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp. The open rotunda afforded viewers the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on different levels simultaneously.

The building itself has often been called the most important piece of art in the Guggenheim collection.

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Thanksgiving in New York 2017

This year, we're in Chinatown again eating at Hop Kee and Taiyaki NYC for desserts.

The next day, we went to Jollibee in Queens, then to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum near Central Park. We walked around part of the lake at Central Park.

Went back to our hotel then ate at Carmine's for dinner. My sister and I watched the Book of Mormon. Parents watched Anastasia. We met at Junior's afterwards for desserts.

I'm done.

LEGO® House (2014 Special Edition)

This special edition set was only sold by surrounding stores in Billund, Denmark in 2014 to promote the LEGO House. It's designed to fit in with the Architecture theme, but not an official part of it.

Construction started in 2014. The building officially opened in September 28th, 2017. The building functions as part public art piece, tourist attraction, LEGO store, cafe, and with roughly 20,000 square feet set aside for open space.

Billund - the Capital of Children

LEGO® House is being built at the heart of Billund and is an important step in the vision of developing Billund into a Capital of Children. The dream is to make Billund a venue for children as well as a centre for spreading knowledge about creativity, play and learning.

LEGO House will offer Billund's city centre a unique attraction, create new and exciting spaces to meet and help make the city more vibrant.

Around LEGO House, new public spaces for play, staying and commercial activities will be created. Inside the building, a large, covered space with easy access will create a rich and interesting focal point for citizens of Billund, visitors and guests of LEGO House.

LEGO House is an attraction in itself, and the building's rooftop terraces will be accessible both from within and from the outside, creating completely new environments and vantage points.

Architectural idea

The architectural main purpose is to organise the building functions into 21 white bricks, enclosing the indoor space, stacked on top of each other and completed by the fantastic Keystone Gallery, which is inspired by the classic eight-knob LEGO® brick.

Visitors will experience the brick concept throughout the building.

On the ground floor, the bricks around the indoor activity space will feature all functions. Spectacular front stairs will lead up to all the experiences with a bridge, ramps and stairways connecting the various bricks.

LEGO House features disabled access and will be easily accessible for all. Regardless of where the guests are in the house, interior windows and clear lines of sight ensure that they always know where they are, where they come from, and where they are going.

I'm done.

LEGO Architecture - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2009)

It's one of several earlier LEGO Architecture sets in the Architect series that came out in 2009. It's also one of many Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO Architecture sets. The set has been retired.

"The commission for the museum building first came to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1943 from Hilla Rebay. The Baroness von Rebay was the curator of the 'non-objective' painting collection she had encouraged Solomon R. Guggenheim to purchase. Solomon R. Guggenheim desired an architectural environment in which to present these new works that would be as revolutionary as the paintings in his collection themselves."

"Guggenheim was always supportive of Wright, but his death in 1949, just six years after the project was begun, dealth a severe blow to the plans. It took thirteen years of patient struggle on the part of Wright to finally see his building start in construction, and even through the construction stages - from 1956 to his death in 1959, six months before the museum opened - the struggle waged on. During the sixteen years that this commission dragged on, it was to prove to be the most difficult and the most time-consuming of all Wright's work."

"The building that stands in New York today is very different from those early studies of 1944. The general concept of the building - one continuous ramp - remains, but with the acquisition of more parcels of property on the site and with the change of the program of the museum itself, different architectural solutions were required along the way. Seven complete sets of working drawings were prepared and finally, on August 16, 1955, ground was broken and construction began."

"When the corner at 88th Street was acquired in 1951, the spiral ramp was shifted back to the south. After this last shift was made, Wright, in response to the changing administrative requirements of the museum, suggested the constrction of a tall building behind the museum for a historical gallery, staff offices, workrooms, and storage. Rising behind the museunm would be an eleven-story structure. It was this 1951 design by Wright that served as precedent for the 1992 addition of a 'backdrop' building behind the museum."

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My Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, my family and I went to Boston. It's my first time here and my parents as well. My sibling has been here before.

It was only for two days, so we took the Super Tour bus around Boston, Harvard, and Cambridge area. We went to the Millennium Tower and the Museum of Science afterwards. After that, we walked around downtown area near the pier and had dinner at Legal Sea Foods restaurant. The next day, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts. Overall it was a short and awesome trip.

I'm done.