tafkatb

The mods are having a bit of a laugh with us today...

Nicely done! The modular aspect is really cool, and I love the way you captured the curve. Too many pictures, though - the rules for the contest specify no more than four. (Sorry to mini-mod, I just don't want to see a great MOC disqualified on a technicality like that.) Tereglith beat me to it.

TLG's done pubs before as well, in the Castle and Pirates lines (heck, even the Mos Eisley Cantina). I don't think there has been one in a modern, "real-world" setting though, which seems to be the defining factor when it comes to potentially controversial subject matter. (Like how warfare can be depicted as long as it's in space or medieval times or something, but something based on modern or recent real-world militarism would be a no-go.) Granted, that line gets a little blurrier when it comes to licensed sets, so it's hard to tell whether this would pass review.

Just what it says in the title. 21001 is the only Architecture set that has been discontinued, so secondary-market prices are steadily increasing. I have an extra that I would gladly sell at its original retail price ($20USD, plus shipping) to anyone who is interested in collecting the line but doesn't want to pay double its value on Bricklink. I only ask that the buyer be someone who genuinely wants the set rather than someone who plans to resell it. PM me or reply here if you're interested! I'd prefer US buyers, but if you're willing to cover the shipping cost, I'm willing to ship overseas.

First post updated - new pictures (finally) including my own photograph of the building itself. The model hasn't changed noticeably - I tried out TheWarden's idea of using macaroni curves for the urban carpet, but couldn't get that to work in a way that I thought remained true to the Architecture aesthetic. So, cheese slopes it is, I guess.

Oy, sorry about that - don't know how that happened. Should be working now, and I promise, for real this time, I'll go downtown tomorrow and take/post more pictures.

Ha, very true. I didn't keep track last year, but this year I'm trying to only spend "free money" - tips, bonuses, gifts, VIP points - so as a percentage of my income it will technically be... 0%.

Yeah, you can just barely see it through the window on the right side, but I have a row of cheese slopes inside to represent that. I'll have to take off the upper floors and post a picture of the interior ground floor to show it. My ultimate ambition is to do this at minifig scale so I can use a bunch of these. Too bad about the rain, but nice to see there's another Cincinnatian here!

As soon as I saw your model, I thought, "Oh, that has to be a Calatrava." So you're definitely on the right track! Maybe you could use some bar pieces to capture the skeletal sort of look?

I agree about the cones to represent the statues - I think it's exactly how an official model would be done. You've captured the scaling and balance between detail and abstraction really well!

I have no idea exactly how long it took or how many revisions it went through... I have a way of losing track of time while I'm building. More pictures are coming soon! If it's nice out tomorrow I'm going to go downtown and photograph it in front of the real thing, and will post that along with interior and elevation shots. Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement and compliments!

That was actually just an accidental camera trick - the flash reflecting off the windows made it look like it was lit from inside. I like how it turned out though. Thank you for the kind comments!

Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, Ohio Architect Series Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid, born 31 October, 1950, is an Iraqi-British architect and designer. After earning a degree in mathematics at the American University of Beirut and studying at London's Architectural Association School of Architecture, she went on to work with her former teacher, the well-known architect Rem Koolhaas, and became a partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1977. Much of her early work was largely theoretical, with designs so complex as to be considered unbuildable, but even these were innovative enough to garner international acclaim and win several design competitions and awards. In 1980, Hadid established her own practice, with over 20 works completed to date and many more currently underway. Some of her best-known works include the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, and MAXXI National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy. Hadid's use of striking angles, complex curves, and bold formal juxtaposition has made her a leading figure in contemporary deconstructivist architecture, and in 2004 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize. Contemporary Arts Center Founded in 1939, Cincinnati, Ohio's Contemporary Arts Center has occupied multiple locations around the city. By 2001, the time had come to commission a purpose-built gallery space, and in keeping with the organization's cutting-edge approach to art, the gallery wanted an ultra-modern architect to design it. The selection committee narrowed down 100 submissions to three - Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Bernard Tschumi - from which Hadid was ultimately selected. (Libeskind and Tschumi would both go on to complete other works in the Cincinnati area, the former with The Ascent in nearby Covington, Kentucky, and the latter with the University of Cincinnati's Lindner Athletic Center.) Hadid's design - her first American commission and the first major American museum designed by a woman - came to be officially known as the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, named for two of its principal donors, and has been called "the most important American building to be completed since the cold war" by New York Times architectural critic Herbert Muschamp. The building consists of six stories and a lower level, housing galleries, offices, a performance hall, and a gift shop. The complex facade consists of multiple forms merging into one another, appearing to float over the glass-fronted ground floor that invites passersby in through a concept Hadid calls the "urban carpet," a continuation of the sidewalk outside into the interior and up the north wall. Facts about the Contemporary Arts Center Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Architect: Zaha Hadid Building type: Gallery Materials: Concrete, glass, and steel Style: Deconstructivist Date: 2003 Floor area: 82,265 square feet (7,643 square meters) A Word from the Artist Though relatively conservative as major American cities go, Cincinnati, Ohio, features a wide range of buildings designed by leading "starchitects," from Frank Gehry and Michael Graves to Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi, but my favorite is easily Zaha Hadid's CAC. Although I could have captured its form with a direct studs-on-top build, I wanted to reflect the building's formal concept of a city grid deconstructed and turned perpendicular, so the structure is built almost entirely sideways. This approach presented some unique challenges when combined with the various offsets - some as small as half a stud and even half a plate - that were necessary to represent the shifting forms, but a lot of trial and error with brackets and Erling bricks eventually resulted in a stable solution. The model is finished off with a few interior details on the ground floor, including a row of 1x1 "cheese" slopes to replicate the transition from floor to wall, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to add a splash of contrast with some red bricks to suggest the Shepard Fairey murals currently on display in the lobby.

I would love a Buck Rogers-esque space theme. The rocket build in the MBA Space Designer Kit replicates that retro feel really well; I'd like to see more like it.

Can't wait to use it to recreate this:

Honestly, I think the Potter Stewart definition is the best anyone's going to be able to come up with.

Well, I live in the US, but I did recently find a set I really wanted that was only available in the Netherlands. I ended up getting it from a US-based Bricklink seller - they charged more than twice what the set was actually worth, but with shipping charges factored in, it was still cheaper than trying to get it from overseas. So that may be your best bet: wait until someone in your country has one for sale, and buy it for a most-likely-inflated price as a compromise for lower shipping charges. Or just wait until you or a friend happens to take a trip to the US.

This is really beautiful! I actually really like the Bright Green front door, though my favorite details are the bookshelf and the brilliant use of the snake as an exotic plant.

I have a building that I've already posted here before, but I've been thinking of rebuilding it in a different scale. Will that be eligible?

Ooh, I'm so glad MAXXI is in the lead right now! Zaha Hadid is one of my favorite architects.

I believe someone has posted a picture of the Mini Modulars with the vehicles from Tower Bridge, and they seemed scaled about right.

My educated guess is that the next one will prominently feature some shade of green - I'm really hoping for a restaurant in the new olive green color. Anyway, nice review! The piece outlines in the instructions are actually pretty helpful, I think. They've been doing this for a few years as far as I know, but only for builds that have a lot of one color - it was in the instructions for 21005 Fallingwater as well.

You mentioned there would be a contest for Architecture Month - was that just referring to Category B of this contest, or will there be another competition this month focusing solely on Architecture?

No, I don't think this is the case - Astrid made it clear in the video that the Town Hall is intended to be unique in its size. I think it's very likely that subsequent modulars will be back down to the level of others in terms of both size and price.

When I called, the customer service rep said he'd never heard of this problem happening before, so I guess I'm just special. He was more than happy to take my order over the phone though, and it seems my card worked fine for that.