A minifig peers into the cloudy night, enjoying his luxury, lakeside condominium...
I have always loved the large LEGO curved windows and have dreamed of using them on a large building.
The result is this large, condominium sky-scraper. I was influenced by German Bauhaus designers from the 1920's and 30's. Believe it or not, they were planning surprisingly modern sky-scrapers back then. Specifically, there is a sketch in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City with curving glass walls just like my building!
(More description follows below...)
Most of the parts are from the "Paradisa" LEGO theme. These sets are no longer in production and are extremely difficult to locate these days. Thank goodness for the advent of computer LEGO!
The base of the building is made up of dark-gray BURPS (Big Ugly Rock Pieces).
The lower two floors of the building, as well as the two entry-ways are constructed primarily of 1x4x6 curved glass panels. These are no longer in production, but can be acquired through trading or EBAY purchases. I have painstakingly gathered about 6 of these. Set 6411 (Sand Dollar Cafe) has 3 and is typically available on EBAY for about $40 (when someone is selling one).
The upper tower is actually two structures. The inner structure is a standard upright set of walls and plates. This internal skeleton is wrapped in a vertically mounted shell of white half-arches, and large (1x6x9) curved glass panels. These panels are the rarest piece, coming in only one set (that I know of) called Breezeway Cafe (6376). It contains 2. This set is also no longer in production. I don't see very many of these available on EBAY and I don't know their probable cost (probably quite a bit).
The external shell rests on tiles at its base. However, it is interlocked with two "Aquazone" columns with studs on the side. These arches are quite strong and are capable of anchoring quite a bit of weight. I used this same technique on a real structure of comparable size (see the Marine Research Institute in LEGO City 2). You can just barely see the columns in the back of the tower (at its base). LEGO never made them in white, but black is available and probably would look reasonable.
The roof of the tower is anchored directly to the ceiling of the internal skeleton.
|
|
|
