Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Nanoblock - Statue of Liberty

I believe I bought this in 2015. I finally found time to build it. This took two hours.

Construction of Lady Liberty began in 1870 but was delayed many times due to fundraising issues. While the rest of the statue was still being designed, the head and the torch holding arm toured the world in an effort to gain support for the completion of the statue. After many fundraising efforts, including one by Joseph Pulizer, the publisher of the New York World paper, the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Today, a ferry service is provided to take tourists out to visit the statue, Provided it is not being renovated, tourists can stop by the museum housed in the pedestal and if they are feeling particularly athletic, climb the staircase all the way to the observatory in the crown.



I'm done.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

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.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Kubros - Hellboy

There will be a Hellboy reboot coming out in 2018. I was hoping to see a sequel made after The Golden Army, but it's not meant to be. Hopefully the new movie is pretty good.



I'm done.

Friday, September 29, 2017

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."



I'm done.