Adam constructed an impressive array of 15 landmark buildings with different architectural styles, including the John Hancock building, the Burj Dubai, and the Empire State Building. He even managed to build the St. Louis arch. If you’d like to see them in person, they’re on display at an exhibition called LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition, at the National Building Museum in Washington DC through September 3.

I wonder where they will be stored after the exhibit, or if they will be taken apart. If it is the latter, I would love to be the guy to destroy them – in a Godzilla outfit of course.

[via Gizmodo via Dvice]

Similar plans for 17- and 20-story buildings that will also be using wood as its main construction material are also being drawn up for Norway and Austria.

Green says: “We think we can go higher than 30 stories. We stopped exploring wood around 100 years ago (with the advent of steel and concrete); now we’re looking at a whole new system using mass timber products.”

The (soon-to-be) literal rise of these wooden structures is the manifestation of environmental-minded architects who want to add a forest-harvested building in the urban skyline. Wooden skyscrapers are greener for the following reasons: they’re constructed using materials obtained from renewable resources, and the wood actually sucks out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

When I first heard of wooden skyscrapers, I was thinking of a weak structure that might get blown away by a storm or tornado or catch fire when someone in the building lights a match. However, they will actually be built using laminated timber that is light, strong, well-insulated. Did you also know that large wood beams are actually good at resisting fire, since the exterior will char, but the overall integrity of the structure will reportedly be maintained.

Green adds: “It may sound counter-intuitive, but performing well in a fire is something inherent in large piece of wood, that’s why in forest fires the trees that survive are the largest ones.”

[via CNN via Dvice]

The Spire has a lot of things that you don’t notice at first such as internal lighting powered by a 9V battery and a working elevator.

I wonder what all the pieces he used to build this actually came from. I assume the entire build uses LEGO, but some of the stuff so deftly worked into the overall structure that you can’t even tell it’s LEGO.

This thing looks more like a miniature made for a science fiction movie than a LEGO build a geek did at home. Check out the Flickr page of builder Tim Goddard (aka Rogue Bantha) to see more of his cool creations.

[via Brothers-Brick]

The Truss Robot uses a gear system to maneuver along each truss, and can even move from one truss section to another on its own. It can move vertically or horizontally and can make 90 degree turns with ease. It can even flip itself over while riding on a beam, like some sort of robot gymnast. The robot can be programmed to grip onto the end of an adjacent beam which needs to be moved, unscrew it, and replace it into another location. You can get a better idea of how the Truss Robot works in the video below:

In theory, robots like these could be used to handle complex construction and assembly tasks which might be difficult for humans and traditional construction equipment. The truss robot was developed by Franz Nigl and Jeremy Blum under the direction of Dr. Hod Lipson.

This is supposed to be Sachiko’s largest LEGO sculpture yet, measuring about 6-feet-square, and constructed over a period of 11 days in 16-hour shifts. The resulting sculpture features an expansive lawn with LEGO figurines exercising and having fun.

There’s even an Easter egg: four people reading the New York Times. In addition, the letter “T” has a hidden meaning. The artist says it stands for “tanoshii,” the Japanese word for “fun” or “enjoyment.”

Look for the LEGO building on the cover of an upcoming New York Times Magazine hitting shelves soon.

[via designboom]

Using LEGO bricks, Kenney has built a 10-foot tall replica of Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower. The project used 65,000 LEGO pieces and has one of the coolest exteriors I have seen in a LEGO project. The real building has shiny reflective glass that shows the skyline around the building.

Since they couldn’t use mirrored bricks, the artist and his team used colored bricks to build the skyline along with sky and clouds onto the exterior of the building. One of the things I like most is that Kenney also has pics of the build process over on MOC Pages showing how the inside is made to support all that weight. This building and two more are on permanent display at the Chicago LEGO Store. The project took a month of full-time work with the artist and assistants.

[via BrothersBrick]

Those construction sets have now officially landed in stores like Walmart. They are available right now and are a tie-in with the new flick that hit theaters last week. There are a number of sets and they range in price from $7.99 to $59.99 (USD) depending on the complexity of the set and the number of pieces. The good news if you have a bunch of LEGO bricks already is that KRE-O bricks are compatible with other bricks like LEGO.

The kits will also build other play sets than the robot or vehicle. The only thing that bothers me about these kits is that the transformation process from car to robot requires you to take the kits apart and then rebuild them.

See those guys arc welding there? I have it on good authority those are Imperial forces behind all those flying sparks.

For some reason, though, I can’t imagine Stormtroopers using port-a-potties, or driving a Prius. But I have been known to be wrong from time to time.

Now that I’ve got you all worked up, I hate to burst your bubble. What they’re building isn’t a Death Star at all. These guys are actually building this giant steel orb as part for the new Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. While the structure won’t be painted to look like the Death Star, it will eventually be finished to look like the Earth:

No Stormtroopers either, but it’s still pretty cool, eh?

[Photo Credits: Brian D. Crawford and The Raleigh Connossieur]

This took place at the Carleton College in Minnesota. The building they dressed up was Goodsell, which has a domed observatory, so it was perfect for this prank. Actually, I can see another observatory behind,  so they could have converted that one to an R3 unit.

In fact, I’d like to see a permanent structure look like R2-D2. That should be possible and wouldn’t look too weird, right?

[via Make:]

There isn’t much information about who exactly made these LEGO facsimiles, but they look pretty close to the original structures to me.

The ones featured here are the ones I like best. You can check them all out here, though the site takes a while to load – but not nearly as long as it would take you to build your own LEGO landmarks.

[via Coudal]

Hein was inspired the “block” housing he lived in on the streets of Berlin – as well as his childhood block home in Latvia, and decided that the rigid construction style was the perfect subject for a Tetris tribute.

Insert your quarters now, and enjoy…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Sergej created this amusing short animated film through the magic of Adobe After Effects.

[via PSFK]

At first glance, it’s hard to get over the ridiculously suggestive shape of the Torre Agbar (Agbar Tower), but it’s the cool light show that’s really the eye-catcher here.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The 474-foot tall, 38-story office tower has over 4,500 LED devices that can be computer synchronized to display massive, colorful images wrapping the entire building. The building was designed by noted French architect Jean Nouvel, whose designs include the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and Tokyo’s Dentsu Tower among others.

[photos via flickr]