Sydney Opera House: Lego Version

"Sydney Opera House honoured with Lego Architecture model"
David Wheeldon, Architecture & Design (February 17, 2012)

"The Sydney Opera House is being made into an official Lego product, joining a select few architectural icons recreated in miniature architecture collection.


(Architecture & Design, used w/o permission)

"The Opera House is one of seven brick-built models in the new architecture range, which will also include New York's Empire State Building and Seattle's Space Needle. It's due to be released in March.

"Of course people have been making their versions of the iconic building with the famous toy for many years, although it is often cited as one of the most challenging of buildings to replicated in Lego...."

The article says this Lego model of the Sydney Opera House has 260 pieces. It doesn't look a whole lot like the original: but that's probably not the point. Folks who like snap-together models of famous buildings should like Lego's new contribution to world culture. The thing would probably be fun to assemble.

Parents might buy Lego's Sydney Opera House in hopes that it would be 'educational.' As a recovering English teacher, the Lemming thinks that kids would probably enjoy the model anyway. They might find creative ways of re-arranging the components, too. Some of the roof segments look like they'd look good on a giant robot.

According to the article, Lego's got a small line of 'famous buildings' models:

• Jorn Utzon
  • Sydney Opera House
• Mies van der Rohe
  • Farnsworth House
• SOM
  • Burj Khalifa
• Frank Lloyd Wright
  • Fallingwater
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
  • Robie House

Parking? What Parking?

New South Wales has a pretty good history of the Sydney Opera House on its website:

• "Archives In Brief 28 - A brief history of the Sydney Opera House"
  NSW (New South Wales) State Records

They don't, understandably, emphasize a curious point about the Sydney landmark: parking. But - hats off for government transparency - the website's chronology has the facts:

• 1955
  • (September 13)
    International competition for Opera House design opens, attracting
    • 233 entries
    • 32 counties
• 1957
  • (January 29)
    Jørn Utzon wins first prize
• 1966
  • (February 28)
    Jørn Utzon resigns
  • (April 19)
    Utzon replaced by a government panel
    • E.H. Farmer, Government Architect
      Peter Hall, Design Architect
    • D.S. Littlemore, in charge of supervision
    • Lionel Todd, in charge of contract documents
• 1972
  • (December 17)
    First test concert
• 1973
  • (September 29)
    First public concert
• 1993
  • (March 17)
    Parking for Sydney Opera House built

Two decades before parking facilities were retrofitted into the Opera House area? That was a long wait for a parking spot. Seriously, the Lemming is sure that folks in Sydney found a way to park somewhere within walking distance of the place - or that there was a really big demand for taxi service before the in-house parking came. If memory serves, Minneapolis, Minnesota, realized that their Metodome might need parking accommodations after it was built, too. There's a lot of parking lots around that place now: where a neighborhood or two used to be. And that's another topic. Vaguely-related posts:

• Buildings behind the Lego models
  • Burj Dubai/Dubai Tower/Burj Khalifa
    • "Burj Dubai: Record-Setting Superscraper Opens Today - With the Usual Complaints"
      (January 4, 2010)
    • "Explosion and Evacuation at Burj Dubai / Khalifa - and Lots of Silence"
      (February 10, 2010)
    • "Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Tower: Points of View"
      (February 10, 2010)
  • "Frank Lloyd Wright - - - LEGO Sets?!"
    (May 20, 2009)
  • "Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Fallingwater' A Hyper Detailed Architectural Model"
    (October 4, 2007)
  • "Farnsworth House: It's Not Practical, and That's Not the Point"
    (September 21, 2007)
• Architecture, art, and stuff
  • "A 21st Century Look at 19th Century Visions of the 20th Century"
    (January 4, 2012)
  • "Shanghai World Financial Center: Amazing Architecture, a Disgruntled Dragon, and Getting a Grip"
    (October 19, 2011)
  • "Milwaukee Art Museum: 'It's Alive!!' "
    (November 2, 2010)
  • "The Eiffel Tower: Still Pretty Cool"
    (April 23, 2010)
  • "Rodin's The Thinker: What Were They Thinking?!"
    (May 11, 2009)