Rockefeller Center

THE BUILDINGS

Often described as one of the greatest projects of the Great Depression era, the Rockefeller Center is a complex that originally consisted of 14 buildings designed in the Art Deco style that opened during the mid to late 1930’s (it was expanded in later years with the addition of 5 more buildings). The centerpiece of the complex is its tallest building – 30 Rockefeller Plaza (originally named the RCA Building) which houses the headquarters of NBC. With various other attractions including Radio City Music Hall, a sunken plaza with an ice-skating rink (open during winter months) and an impressive collection of sculptures, murals and other art, Rockefeller Center continues to be one of the key cultural centers in New York.

THE MODEL

I originally set out to only build a digital model of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. But I eventually decided to expand the scope of the project to include the entire Rockefeller Center (at least the 14 original buildings as well as 75 Rockefeller Plaza). Robin Hull – a fellow LEGO enthusiast who also happens to manage the website dedicated to Ralph Hancock (the Welsh landscape architect who had designed the rooftop gardens at Rockefeller Center) even convinced me to try to represent the rooftop gardens in my model. Using over 102 K digital LEGO pieces, this is definitely my largest and most ambitious project to date.