Imagine turning your favorite childhood hobby into a career that takes you around the world. News4’s Tommy McFly spoke with the man behind a larger than life LEGO exhibit in D.C.
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Can you imagine turning your favorite childhood hobby into a career that takes you all over the world?
That happened to British artist Warren Elsmore, who will present his latest Lego exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.
"Brick City" has landmarks such as the Roman Coliseum and the Lincoln Memorial, the landscapes of Cartagena and Colombia, and many others.
According to the National Building Museum's website, the "magnificent centerpiece of the exhibition" is London's St. Pancras station which is made of 180,000 Lego bricks with a 12 feet length.
In an interview for The Weekend Scene, Elsmore said that he developed his own method of construction because there are no instructions for his creations.
"So there's no instructions for any of these models other than ones that we've written ourselves or I've done myself. So some things in a big model, like St. Pancras, it's got lots of repeating elements, so we'll design that in a special Lego CAD system," he said.
CAD stands for "special computer aided design system," a method used to create plans "for Lego bricks, so it has all the bricks in there and I can build digitally on the computer without needing access to everything," he added.
AN EARLY AGE PASSION
Elsmore said that from a very early age he had a fascination with the popular toy.
"Every Christmas, every birthday, it was always Lego. My parents can't remember when I started just because there was always Lego around," Elsmore said. "So I've been a fan since at least three or four. But it was Lego. Never the Duplo big bricks, apparently. Never ever," he joked.
Before fully dedicating himself to this industry, the artist worked in I.T. for 12 years, and in 2012 he decided to take the leap.
The digital world and the more tactile, architectural world are different, he said, but not as much as one might think.
"But there's still a lot of similarities, I think, because the way we design models is similar to the way the real things are done," Elsmore added.
The exhibit will open its doors on May 27 and will be open for two years, according to museum spokeswoman Caitlin Bristol.
"It's an entire seven continent journey, and there are a lot of buildings that are very iconic that people will recognize immediately," she said. "Maybe they've been to them, but there are also buildings that are new to people."
Tickets are required to enter the National Building Museum. They cost $7 for kids between the ages of 3 and 17, and for people over 60. The cost per adult is $10. Access here for more.
