Jun 8th 2015

Third Year's LEGO city in ChicagoInno

Third year IIT Architecture Chicago student Rocco Buttliere was interviewed by Chicago Inno regarding his LEGO Chicago city model. Buttliere started this project in 2009 in hopes to construct a continuous replica of downtown Chicago at a 1:650 scale. He plans to build all of downtown Chicago, which he estimates will take about ten years and another two million LEGO pieces.

Detail of Buttliere's LEGO model of downtown Chicago. Image by Rocco Buttliere

Buttliere told ChicagoInno, "As an observer of the city, I feel it is always the touristy thing to walk about and typically only take note of the well-known landmarks. This is what I did, for the most part in the years leading up to my studies at IIT. Wanting to study architecture got me interested in representing buildings, but actually studying architecture and urbanism led me to consider the importance of each aspect of the urban environment. This is why I strive to include more and more of each model's surroundings; so that I can more honestly express its context as truly being a part of a whole, not simply an individual and standalone monument as the designation of 'landmark' would have you believe."

His North Loop model will be displayed at Brickworld Chicago in Schaumburg June 20 and 21. It will also be displayed at IIT's LEGO day on July 18.