LEGO Architecture "World's Tallest" Custom Series

[Bugbot2008]

The VAB Looks awesome! And yay for skates!

Thank you for fulfilling my request :D

Edited February 5, 2016 by Bugbot2008

[Matt The Tuba Guy]

Getting it to scale wasn't particularly difficult.

I knew what scale to make it, so I looked up the dimensions on Wikipedia, and used Excel to calculate the dimensions in bricks/plates.

Excel is really useful for that kind of thing.

Your city is very nice! I have considered doing this for my city of Christchurch.

Probably two versions actually, one before and one after the earthquakes.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Matt The Tuba Guy

[Doctor Octoroc]

Getting it to scale wasn't particularly difficult.

I knew what scale to make it, so I looked up the dimensions on Wikipedia, and used Excel to calculate the dimensions in bricks/plates.

Excel is really useful for that kind of thing.

Your city is very nice! I have considered doing this for my city of Christchurch.

Probably two versions actually, one before and one after the earthquakes.

A before and after project sounds awesome! I've had people suggest to me that I should add new buildings to Legodelphia as they build them (they've built at least 3 or 4 since I made the model last year).Some have suggested building those newer buildings in a different color so that eventually, the model will show all the changes to the city over time.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Doctor Octoroc]

Also, just finished the Key Tower in Cleveland, OH. Another relatively simple build but a lot of side studs and plates to get the right look. For this one, the small rocket fins were best to represent the spire, unlike the Bank of America Plaza and One Liberty Place, which use more stepping of plates for the top spire portions.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Herky]

So help me out, being from Iowa, which building would you do for my home state? To be honest, Des Moines might have a taller building or two, but being good natured, I challenge you to just do what is the right building for the Hawkeye state that produces the most corn per capita of any place in the world...a corn silo

For my adopted and current home state of Missouri, I went with the Arch, but we have some decent buildings in St Louis, and having lived in KC there are a couple there, but none are much different than any other city, there is not a "stand out" building in either big city. I would still go with the Arch. Good luck!

And thanks for the colorized version of Legodelphia, I agree, the color looks awesome on the plans but in actual building I think what you did was best. Now the stadiums ...I would go with the color. I continue to be very impressed by them all.

[Doctor Octoroc]

So help me out, being from Iowa, which building would you do for my home state? To be honest, Des Moines might have a taller building or two, but being good natured, I challenge you to just do what is the right building for the Hawkeye state that produces the most corn per capita of any place in the world...a corn silo

For my adopted and current home state of Missouri, I went with the Arch, but we have some decent buildings in St Louis, and having lived in KC there are a couple there, but none are much different than any other city, there is not a "stand out" building in either big city. I would still go with the Arch. Good luck!

And thanks for the colorized version of Legodelphia, I agree, the color looks awesome on the plans but in actual building I think what you did was best. Now the stadiums ...I would go with the color. I continue to be very impressed by them all.

For Iowa the tallest building is The Principal Buidling in Des Moines at 630 feet. Missouri is actually right behind Iowa with One Kansas City Place at 624 feet. The Arch is actually 630 feet tall but I guess the WIki article I've been referencing doesn't consider it a skyscraper or building so it isn't on the list. But as far as I'm concerned, it counts - but I am going to have a hell of a time representing it with more than just a flex hose haha.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Doctor Octoroc]

Another of the "US 50" finished - the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, NC. I have to admit, these art becoming pretty redundant since they all have a similar stepped tier design ending in a point - the saving grace on this one is the clear bit at the top which I may revisit with cylindrical pieces instead...

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[d-delay]

This is an epic venture. Glad I get to witness it daily :) Keep 'em coming :D

Edited February 7, 2016 by d-delay

[Doctor Octoroc]

This is an epic venture. Glad I get to witness it daily :) Keep 'em coming :D

Thank you! I'm happy to have some interested followers to both encourage the progress as well as assist with suggestions! Seriously, a lot of these wouldn't have been done without many of you chiming in so keep the requests coming!

Also, new model done - Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait City, Kuwait. This one was a challenge and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it but I think at this scale it's a very difficult form to pull off.

On a side note, work just picked up a ton - feast or famine as they say - so while this project began out of a means to occupy my time aside from work, I'll still be working on these as often as I can. As a plus, I now have some funds coming in to start building some of the actual physical models.

This calls for a spread sheet...

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Matt The Tuba Guy]

Al Hamra is recognisable. Some tan or dark tan on the inside could be an improvement though.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Al Hamra is recognisable. Some tan or dark tan on the inside could be an improvement though.

I think that's part of it - without the contrast between the inside and outside, the form isn't very clear and it definitely loses something. It's a struggle between rounding out the corners properly with slopes and recreating the organic progression of the angle around the form, and doing so in only 2 or 3 plates of height on either side so there is literally only 1x1 LEGO unit of space inside. I opened up the model again to add a pillar of tan in that space and it did add a bit to the overall appearance but the question of how to reconcile that near the top of the form is holding me back from making that change. It's one I've planned on revisiting already, just trying to think of how to pull it off...

[Steve309]

Still love to see the buildings. Also great Lincoln financial field. Seeing a stadium line expanded would be great to see too.

But in line with tallest towers.

Have you thought about

Ryugyong Hotel

[Doctor Octoroc]

Still love to see the buildings. Also great Lincoln financial field. Seeing a stadium line expanded would be great to see too.

But in line with tallest towers.

Have you thought about

Ryugyong Hotel

Oooo...another tri-wing structure! Haven't thought about that one, tbh but I'll put it in the queue!

[Doctor Octoroc]

I'm still planning to revisit AL Hamra but for the time being, I decided to move on to another building - Tuntex 85 Sky Tower.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Doctor Octoroc]

Another TV tower, another simple build with less than 50 pieces! These are nice spacers between the more complicated builds.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Herky]

I have been to Taiwan and have seen the Tuntex. Nice job on that one...seen the 101 as well, but never got to go up in it.

[Doctor Octoroc]

I have been to Taiwan and have seen the Tuntex. Nice job on that one...seen the 101 as well, but never got to go up in it.

Thanks! I had two previous iterations which used 3x3 towers instead of 2x2 and it just looked a bit squat. It's a bit too thin but you can only do so much when each 1x1 unit is equal to about 35 feet!

[Doctor Octoroc]

This one is pretty simple but with a lack of bright blue pieces and 1x1's rounded on only one side (one day, LEGO...one day...), I was forced to use 1x3 plates to keep the three main columns that make up the form together. It's not an ideal construction but the result of such a small scale for this particular shape of building.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Doctor Octoroc]

New addition to the "US 50" mini-series, Devon Energy Tower in Oklahoma City.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Kit Bricksto]

How well are these in scale with each other?

Could you build the skylines of the cities you have buildings from with them? Maybe something inspired by the Skyline series LEGO has now started?

I think that would be pretty cool. :)

[Doctor Octoroc]

How well are these in scale with each other?

Could you build the skylines of the cities you have buildings from with them? Maybe something inspired by the Skyline series LEGO has now started?

I think that would be pretty cool. :)

They're all in 'perfect' scale with each other - within reason, of course. Each LEGO plate height is equal to 25 feet on the actual building so some structures that are within 25 feet of each other are the same size, or depending on how they're constructed, the comparisons aren't all perfect - but very close. Here's a screen shot of them all lined up in LEGO Digital Designer:

EDIT: Had to delete this photo as it's no longer in in the photo album.

Obviously, you can't see the details on any given one but it'll give a good idea of how I keep them all within a reasonable scale of each other.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[Karmalu]

Wow. That's awesome. And I can see at least one building you didn't show yet.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Wow. That's awesome. And I can see at least one building you didn't show yet.

Yeah, I've been unable to find a way to properly render and put together instructions for the Burj Al Arab since it uses flex hoses which aren't easy to work with in any of the digital builders. But also, the build is very similar to another one I've come across - it's one thing to make minor improvements to an official model but putting out a model this similar to another AFOL's model seems questionable so I'm holding off until I can both figure out the flex hose issue and come up with a more original build.

Also, another of the "US 50" done - Chase Tower in Indianapolis, IN! Another simple build. The further down in height I go with this mini-series, the simpler the builds tend to be. The Devon Energy Tower was an exception but thus far a lot of the tallest buildings in each state tend to be a similar style that all yield near identical builds with variations in the placement of side tiles and colors used.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc

[jluck]

I was wondering where Indiana would fall on the list. It's definitely accurate, though it's a boring building in real life. Keep up the awesome work!

[Doctor Octoroc]

I was wondering where Indiana would fall on the list. It's definitely accurate, though it's a boring building in real life. Keep up the awesome work!

Thanks! The next few in the "US 50" series aren't very exciting, I might jump down to something lower on the list first to keep it more interesting...

And on that note, I jumped back over to the world's tallest to bring you all another NYC classic, 4 Times Square! I love thinking about all the possibilities for the four screens on top! I just used standard 1x1 tiles for the time being.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Doctor Octoroc