#my lego architecture skyline

[boi-design-studio]

Welcome to my new LEGO MOC project: Taiwan Architecture & Landscape. It's an amazing project for celebrating World Architecture Day 2024 and Taiwanese Architecture with approximately 2,233 LEGO piece.[...]

🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼

PLEASE, Checking out if you like it. Thanks in advance!

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#architecture

#lego

#legoideas

#legomoc

#taiwan

#taipei

#tainan

#taichung

#kaohsiung

#landscape

#picture

#skyline

#buil

#city

#design

#乐高

#建築

#设计

#台湾

#台北

[zacharyja]

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Day Trip to Osaka

Today began as always at 8am with the class meeting at 9am. After the meeting we all headed to the train station to make our way to Osaka, which is about an hour away from Kyoto by train, and this is my second time making this trip so I knew what to expect going in. The train ride there was fine but I was pretty sleepy and was drifting off while standing up on the train. We eventually made it to Osaka and got off at Osaka Station where we then walked as a group to the Umeda Sky Building, which is a famous Osaka skyline skyscraper featuring two 40 story tall towers conjoined by the top 2 stories. Once we made it inside of the building we got into an elevator up to nearly the top before getting into escalators to take us up to the very top at the observation deck. After going to multiple different observation decks in different cities, I will say it is pretty cool to have seen so many and be able to recognize the differences between the skylines of these cities and how they compare.

I enjoyed getting to see the city of Osaka from such a high vantage point, and it was also cool to see the mountains ranging in the background of the city. Osaka is a lot bigger than I had previously anticipated and I am quite surprised by the scale of the city. I also thought it was cool to learn that in Osaka, people stand in the right side of the escalator and walk on the left, whereas in Tokyo the inverse is true. According to Professor Smith, this is because when escalators were being unveiled in Japan, in Osaka for the first time, they used the western method of escalator courtesy, and when escalators made their way to Tokyo, they went about it in the normal way without outside influence which resulted in these differences.

After viewing the city from the top of the building, we then made our way down and out of the building we broke for lunch. Some friends and I decided on an Udon place where I ordered Dashi Udon with duck meat. My meal was pretty decent but nothing too special, the udon noodles were better than any i’ve had in the USA though. After this we all hopped on a train and made our way to a stop close to the Osaka Castle, which I was pretty excited to see. We then walked up to the castle and I was amazed at how massive it was close up, as seeing it from a distance looks like a normal house size but being 5 feet away really puts it into scale. The castle was very pretty and well decorated, and I was a fan of the architecture in general.

After viewing the castle, we all got on another train and made our way to Dotonbori, which is the main shopping and restaurant area in Osaka. I was not too much of a fan of this place, as it was extremely busy and a bit overwhelming at times, but it was still cool to see such a famous area in person. After walking around a bit with some friends we ended up deciding to head to the Osaka Pokemon Center to look around, it was also inside of a massive 10 story shopping mall that had just about every store you could think of, ranging from Gucci, to Lego, to a Godzilla store. The stuff there really was random and it was fun just exploring the area and seeing what it had to offer.

After this, we made our way back to the hotel which took about an hour again. After we got back I went and got Gyudon for dinner to satisfy my hunger cravings before coming back to the hotel and showering and doing my laundry.

Academic Reflection

Todays reading focused a bit on the urbanization and industrialization of Japan, which was a pretty interesting topic to cover for today as we have seen so much of Japan already and got to go to another city in one day, mainly only possible because of the amazing infrastructure. I was a bit shocked to hear that in Japan, homes are not really an investment, and rather are readily destroyed and rebuilt as they do not really like to preserve old building and would rather demolish it and completely restart. This is a stark contrast to how housing is handled in the United States, where we tend to keep houses for as long as they possibly last, opting to renovate things over and over instead of demolishing and restarting. It’s interesting to see both sides of the coin, as maybe America could take notes from Japan in this sense to help with the housing crisis, as not viewing homes as investment would mean that people will stop holding on to them for so long. Another point that was brought up and I had already heard about, was how the loose zoning laws in Japan contributed to the dense urban population and allowed for their characteristic walkable cities. Though this was not new information, the content was definitely solidified via the reading.

[demobatbricks]

LEGO Sets Too Overpriced For Their Own Good

When it comes to consumerism, you expect good value for your hard-earned dollar. When it comes to LEGO, this isn't always the case.

While most of the time sets have good value at release, the latest price increases have been a deterrent to basic consumerism. Most of the time, sets have decent to good price value for how many pieces you get but there are cases where the price doesn't always equal the piece count or it's just too overpriced and not a qualitative build experience.

Here are a few examples in my opinion of such case. Note that this is solely my opinion.

Hulkbuster (PCS: 4049/$549.99)

Released in November 2022, the Hulkbuster released to some negative reception by both Marvel and LEGO fans. The only saving grace (if you can call it one) is that it pairs with the buildable Iron Man figure which can fit inside the Hulkbuster but that's about it along with a Tony Stark minifigure.

Everything about this set screams overhyped, overpriced and an utter disappointing build experience. It's currently 30% off and priced at $384.99. Even at 30% off, it still feels like a rip off.

Black Panther (PCS: 2961/$349.99)

Hyped with excitement at the potential of a Black Panther set, fans would expect the trend of helmet sets to continue, which would've been a better idea than what we got.

What we got was a gaudy bust of Black Panther that released on October 1st, 2022. While an accurate representation of Black Panther, the final result looks lackluster for the low piece count and high price demand. A simple helmet build for $60 or $70 would've gone over a lot better than what was given.

X-Men X-Jet (PCS: 359/$84.99)

With the return announcement of X-Men '97, LEGO prepared to capitalize upon the X-Men. With the rumor of a possible X-Mansion set floating around and the release of the adamantium claw set, LEGO released the X-Jet...for $84.99 and it only has just over 350 pieces.

I do understand at least a good portion of the pricing has to do with the Marvel license and leg printing of Wolverine and Rogue (which I consider a positive), this is unreasonably priced with how small it is. If it were something like the GOTG's The Milano in terms of piece count, I could see LEGO's perspective on the price or even the Quinjet that goes for $99.99 I could also understand but $85 for something that I think should be $49.99 max is one of the biggest price & piece contrasts I've ever seen.

The build doesn't look horrible by any means as one of its' positives is four minifigures in which two have leg printing (though you could make a case for Cyclops being able to have leg printing) and the sticker placements are understandable in some cases. My issue obviously is the obscure price point for such a low piece count.

Eiffel Tower (PCS: 10,001/$629.99)

If the Colosseum was considered repetitive, then you can add the Eiffel Tower to that list of repetitive builds that also look drab and also overpriced.

While it is considered the largest LEGO set piece wise, with the exception of the base 90% of the build has you do the same thing for each part of the tower. The set was released on Black Friday in 2022.

Two other issues come into play with this set: 1. Who's gonna be able to afford something like this and 2. Where are you gonna place it because I highly doubt this is going in someone's LEGO city. This is something you're either gonna need to place on the floor when entering a LEGO room or on an extremely sturdy shelf that can hold a lot of weight. Also, this set locks behind it an interesting GWP when it released which was Eiffel's Apartment which could only be acquired by getting the Eiffel Tower. Now the only way to find the apartment is on the secondhand market.

While it isn't as impressive, the Paris architecture skyline does feature the Eiffel Tower in mini form along with other famous Paris landmarks and locations so while you won't get the large and hulking structure of the 10k piece tower, you'll get a more affordable version that includes the Eiffel Tower.

To conclude, these are only my opinions and should not be taken as fact as some may agree with this assessment and some may disagree but that's the nature of an opinion.

I wish everyone an awesome day and an awesome building experience.

[mylegoarchitecturecollection]

San Francisco Skyline

[thessalian]

Thess vs Lego Doom

So there I am going, “Okay, I want to get more Lego but I’m not sure I want to give Amazon more money. Maybe I’ll make an account on the Lego website and see what I might like on a wishlist”.

A half-hour and 25 wishlist items later: “I am doomed”.

And yes, I did put the big AT-AT and big Millennium Falcon on the wishlist. I may have to save for them, and probably need new shelving to display them properly, but hot damn do I want them.

Also city skylines, several extensive architectural pieces, an adorable little blue Vespa, some flowers (because I like my plants, okay?) and ECTO-1.

(Also, the Lego company needs to do better research if it wants to cater more effectively to Star Wars nerds. Points for remembering that Din Djarin’s ship is The Razor Crest, but ... come on. It’s not “Boba Fett’s Ship”; it is “Slave-1″. It is not “Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing”, it is “Red-5″.)

Also I might look up the independently-designed Horizon: Zero Dawn Lego sets because HOLY HELL I WANT TO BUILD A THUNDERJAW.

Doomed, I tell you. DOOOOOOOOMED.

[aintmyjewelry]

I haven’t got the one yet but I’ve heard it’s really fun. Are you in big Lego fan?

I LOVE legos! i’ve done quite a few of the Architecture series (like the city skylines and the White House set). I’ve also recently done built the bonsai tree set but this one im doing now is my first Marvel Lego set 🥺

[bearlytolerant]

it sure is Tuesday which meanssss hey Edith.......... whats in your toy collection? 😌

Oh this ancient stuffed rabbit from when I was a kid, guitar hero including my janky Xbox 360, and a LEGO Architecture set that’s of the London Skyline that I’m still working on (lbr it’s probably never getting finished).

[nikkalia]

Storytime with Auntie Dragon: Betrayal edition

Gather round, children, it’s time once again for “Storytime with Auntie Dragon.” Today’s episode: NYC & Betrayal, a tale of adventure, excitement, and how a certain actor is seemingly easily impressed with modern technology. Hey, it’s pretty snazzy stuff…

We begin our tale at the dawn of November. Your dear Auntie D had just purchased a house, and because closing fell in such a way that I had no housing payment in November, there was some spare cash to be had. A friend of mine who lives in the UK (@mrshiddleston-uk) had been talking about her upcoming trip to the states to see our beloved Mr. Hiddleston in his Broadway debut, and after careful scouring of countless calendars, I decided that the Boychild could miss a day of school to make the trip and decided to go. Another friend ( @silverink-goldenlies) came along for the ride and the trip was set. 

THE TRIP: Bloody hell, why is it every time I drive north, roads are torn up? I mean seriously. I spent more time on the brakes because of construction than I did with the cruise control engaged. For 698 miles! I did not, for those who may be curious, drive up I-95. Oh, the hells to the NO. I have driven that stretch of disaster quite enough to know that it’s a toss-up as to whether you get Hell on earth or a multi-lane, multi-hour parking lot. And that’s just around Richmond. D.C. is worse. Much. Worse. But I digress…

I-78 is (mostly) a beautiful drive. Lots of mountains, rolling hills, farmland, all that. From southern Virginia up through parts of New Jersey, there are lots of farms. LOTS of farms. With cows. And steers. And horses. And even an alpaca - dude had a long neck. Somewhere along the way, every time we passed a farm with cows, @silverink-goldenlies would just blurt out “cows.” In the middle of a conversation, “cows”.  Passing silence for miles and suddenly, “cows.”

And occasionally, “cows. And horses.” The boy child would even chime in now and again. 

THE ARRIVAL: We made it to NYC around sunset. When we were 25 miles or so out, I spied the city skyline and told @silverink-goldenlies to look out the window. Poor thing was so excited I think she almost cried. We took the Lincoln Tunnel into the city because I missed an exit. Which reminds me, Google Maps, get your turn-by-turn shit together. I spent more time on the road than necessary due to a lack of “in 500 feet, turn here.” Waze doesn’t treat me like that. It just crashes. And Waze has Cookie Monster voice. Anyway…Lincoln Tunnel. That was fun, kinda. I kept having flashbacks of Independence Day with the fireball coming up the tunnel following the alien attack. Not cute.  

We emerged in the city and I very quickly learned that upstate NY driving is totally different than NYC driving. I lived in Albany for a couple of years, and in upstate, you can use your signal and mostly expect someone to let you in, or at least get out of the way. Not NYC. Nope nope nope. You signal, insert the front fender of your car and hope the person you’re essentially cutting off is paying attention. It only took one missed turn (thanks Google) for me to learn the ways of the natives and navigate correctly through the city. Which I did successfully. At rush hour. Praise Asphaltia, Goddess of the Road. 

Cows.

NYC: After a night of bullshit sleep thanks to the rock-solid beds of the LaQuinta - Queens, our party was up and in the city by 9:30 am. I’ve always had this mental image of NYC being small because of how tightly packed everything is. My friends, that is absolutely not the case. The city is M A S S I V E in both size and scope. I was totally a tourist, videoing everything in Times Square and looking up like I expected the sky to fall. I learned something I never knew, and never really thought about: they leave the big crystal ball on top of the building after New Year’s. It’s sitting up there, pretty as you please, changing colors all year long. Who knew?

We hit the highlights of Manhattan like my son speed runs through Dark Souls. Times Square, Hard Rock New York, the M&Ms store (3 floors…3 FLOORS of chocolatey goodness), one of two Lego stores, and Rockefeller Plaza. The tree is up, but not on display. I need them to slow down on the trimming it back. There won’t be any tree left, and it’s looking a little scrawny, to begin with. Ice skating was in full effect, but we didn’t go. I knew I had a show and another 10-hour drive back to NC to get through, and doing it on a seriously bruised ass would not have been a good look.

Noon hits and we head back towards the Jacobs theatre. By the time we got there, the box office was open and there was already a line. Thank the gods for online purchases. Easy in, easy out. Around 1 pm, we met up with the lovely @mrshiddleston-uk and attempted to get lunch at some Irish pub. @mrshiddleston-uk briefed us on all things stage door and helped to craft a plan of attack to get the best spots for meeting the cast. The line to get into the theatre was already formed and growing by the time we decided to bail on the never appearing food. 

THE JACOBS THEATRE: This is a gorgeous space. The theatre is on the small side, but I genuinely believe that there isn’t a bad seat in the house. We were in the balcony house left and could see every bit of the stage. Beautiful architecture, comfy seats - if not a little (LOT) short on the legroom - and a pretty chandelier made the place feel cozy and warm. The staff was wonderful as well. I’d totally see another show in this space. 

BETRAYAL: So here’s the part you all came for, right? Right. Cows. To be honest, I’d never heard of Harold Pinter before Tom Hiddleston took the role in the London production, much less read any of his work. I didn’t know what to expect except for what I’d heard from @mrshiddleston-uk after her viewings of the London show. The concept of the show is intriguing enough - following a love triangle in reverse order with a minimalist set and lighting design. I’m a tech nerd anyway, so I was excited to see how well this would work. 

Oh. My. Goddess. This show was AMAZING. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to a show that totally sucked me in to the point that I was actually invested in the story. Betrayal did just that. From the moment the curtain rose (more on that in a sec) until the stage went black, I was sucked into the world of Robert and Emma and Jerry and how the affair went from disintegration to conception. I have absolutely no sympathy for any of these characters at the end of the day. They are all seriously flawed and have caused themselves the pain that they experience in this story. But, that’s what makes good drama, right?

The sheer lack of set made it easier to pay attention to the actors and the script, which is a huge perk in this game of verbal tennis. The characters go from normal speech patterns to the famed Pinter pauses to this back and forth without missing a beat (or a syllable) that will make your head spin. The boychild told me later he found it a little hard to follow, which is understandable if you’re not used to hearing it in an English accent. 

There was a lot of play with light and shadow in this show. It’s no secret that all three actors are on stage for the duration of the play, with the “odd man out” lurking somewhere in the shadows. It was thrilling to see, to be honest, because you catch yourself looking around to see what the odd man is doing while the two in focus characters are speaking. Robert standing against the back wall facing the wings; Emma curled up on the floor eating an apple; Jerry sitting off the side with his back against the back wall. All making little gestures or motions that hint at what that character is experiencing in that moment in time. 

Even the shadows themselves told a part of the story. The sharper focused shadows cast by Robert and Emma when she confesses the affair created a tension that doesn’t exist when Robert is lurking in the background of scenes involving Jerry and Emma or Emma hiding almost when Robert and Jerry are in the forefront. I found myself watching the shadows in this scene more than the actors themselves. It’s that intense. 

One other tech geek note: the back wall moved. Now, I’ve seen plenty of moving sets. Hells, I’ve moved a few in my time. But this simple change had a tremendous impact. When the wall moved forward, it cuts the surface area of the stage down to 1/8th of what it was at the beginning. It puts the confession right in your face. You can’t get away from it, just as the characters can’t. There’s nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. They, and you, just have to deal with it. Absolutely brilliant on the part of the designers. Enough about the sets, or lack thereof. Cows. I could go on all day. 

THE CAST: We’ll start with Zawe Ashton. She’s a perfectly lovely woman, all smiles and bubbly at the stage door, very sweet. I don’t know that I like her as an actress. Or maybe I don’t like her character, Emma. I haven’t really decided yet. But, if there was a downside to this show, she was it. Her laughter was fake to the point of cringy, and there was something noticeably self-absorbed about her on stage. The other thing I noticed is that she was never standing or sitting straight. She was always twisted, curled up, or otherwise contorted in some fashion, and that gave me a twitch. An acting choice? Maybe. It would stand to reason that this was some subconscious outward expression of Emma’s mental/emotional state. She struck me as whiny, and maybe a little “woe is me” to boot. My thought throughout the play was, bitch, you got yourself into this. Suck it up.

Charlie Cox as Jerry. Great guy at stage door, seemed to be enjoying the fans. Again, I haven’t read the play so I’m not 100% on what Jerry is supposed to be, but Charlie was giving some serious lovesick puppy vibes for this show. And that’s all I got from him. Maybe bits of remorse here and there, but not much. Some great comedic moments, but otherwise, he really didn’t stand out for me. 

Tom Hiddleston as Robert. We’ll discuss stage door in a minute. I’ve worked in the arts and journalism long enough to know that you often hear about how someone “is” but that’s not really who they really are. They pretend to have a presence that doesn’t exist, or they’re not as talented as they, or their agent, would have you believe. And sometimes that “wonderful” actor is really just a prick in real life. Children, I am here to tell you that Thomas William Hiddleston is EVERYTHING he’d cracked up to be.  

When the curtain goes up at the show open, Robert is sitting in a chair, and all you see of him is legs. The man has legs for days…digressing again. Cows. Tom has such a presence that you know exactly where he is. When Charlie and Zawe are sharing their scenes, your eyes can dart straight to Tom. I remember actively looking for Charlie and Emma in scenes they weren’t involved in, just to see what they were doing. Never, ever had to do that with Tom. He was always there, always on the edge of the shadows. 

His performance as Robert is an emotional roller coaster. I watched him run the gamut and back again several times over the course of 90 minutes, and really wonder how the hells he does it every day (and has been since June). No wonder he looks exhausted. He was giving that trademarked smile in some scenes, growling with anger in others (your Loki is showing), and on the verge of tears in still others. I looked down at him during the confession scene and his eyes were brimming, reflecting the bright white light that was shining on him. That one hurt my heart.  Dude can do anything, and I need someone to give him more meaty roles on film. And for the love of the Gods, cast him in a romcom, comedy, something! He’s proven time and again he can act - let him have something besides Loki. 

Disclaimer: I love Loki, don’t get me wrong, but I hate to see talented performers pigeonholed into one role. Tom is so much better than that, as most of them are. 

STAGE DOOR: The show ends, the lights come up, and I can’t get the damn Hard Rock Cafe bag out from between the seats. So this is how it’s gonna go down, eh? WRONG. ANSWER. I get downstairs in record time only to be blocked by old people who can’t decide if they need to pee or not, then distracted by Tom speaking on stage about the fundraiser the theatre is doing. That voice, those long assed legs, and holy hells is the end of the stage right fucking there??? 

FOCUS WOMAN! Cows. Eldery folks having determined that yes, in fact, a stop by the loo is in order, I’m out the door, still struggling with the bag and my coat and not being run over by those who are sprinting to the barricades set up to queue for stage door.  Sprinting. Really? It’s like, 300, 400 feet maybe, from the entrance to the stage door. I wanna have 0.5 seconds in front of Tom too, but damn y’all. It ain’t that serious. 

Secure in our spot upfront and personal by the lovely @mrshiddleston-uk, I got myself squared away and place the Facebook group chat video call. We all agreed that since @firithariel, @igotloki, and @mischeviousbellarina couldn’t be there in person, we’d bring them along digitally. For once, my phone behaved. Did I remember to put them on speaker? That would be a no. 

So, Zawe comes out first, signs programs and chats with fans. She really is adorable. Charlie comes out next and follows the same route, and then the man of the hour (and really the whole point of this trip) emerges in the “uniform”, looking a little frazzled. But, he makes the rounds of autographs, even going so far as to sign a Thanos Funko. 

Really? REALLY? Thanos? How you gonna do my boy wrong like that? Grrrr….. Amusing thing was that Tom really didn’t even acknowledge it, but he looked annoyed by it. 

That’s when Tom got to our merry little band. @silverink-goldenlies showed him the tattoo done by her husband of a Loki helmet with runes surrounded by flowers. He seemed thoroughly impressed with it. I’m next, with our video chat going strong. I asked him to say hi to the girls, and he got a weird look on his face until he saw the phone. He did a double-take, “There are four people on the screen! How did you do that?” We told him about Facebook group chat and where the girls were located. There’s a video floating around Instagram/Twitter of his reaction. It’s entirely too cute. He leaned in and smiled, said hi to them, showed them an autographed program, and handed them to me. He looked me right in the eye for about a second and a half then moved on. I can still see it in my mind, and it makes me smile every time. 

Tom finished the autographs and came back around for selfies. Mine is blurry AF, because of course, it is. It’s the only one I have of him. Maybe I’ll try to fix it in Photoshop. A fucking photographer can’t take a damned selfie. SMH Oh well, you can tell it’s him. @mrshiddleston-uk got some great shots, and I’ll always know I was there, that we spoke, however briefly. 

I’ll spare you the details of the trip home because, well…traffic. And cows. 

And so ends the tale of the very long too short awesome weekend in NYC where I got to meet Tom Hiddleston. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[krumbine]

The Zen of LEGO in the Din of Adulting

Life sucks.

It’s disappointing. Sad. Devastating.

Worst of all, it’s loud.

The political noise of the past year alone has been enough to drive the sanest of social warriors mad from the sheer insanity of discourse.

Fortunately, we have LEGO.

I don’t think anyone has to look far to witness the stress of a career not going in the direction they want it to or watch helplessly as a relationship or marriage falls apart. There’s an agony to seeing a family crisis unfold from hundreds of miles away and being helpless to do a single thing about it.

Fortunately, we have LEGO.

And let’s not forget terrorism. Or mental health crises. Or a plague of mass shootings that show no sign of abating and leaders who seem uninterested in taking any action against.

Fortunately, we have LEGO.

And I don’t say ‘LEGO’ to make light of any of these painfully heavy realities — I say it, literally, because it’s a sad, tragic, devastating and loud world out there right now.

And I don’t know about you, but I need a break from it every now and then.

I’ve never been to Paris, but I’ve built the Eiffel Tower. It’s part of the Architecture series which includes models like the Flatiron Building, a New York City Skyline (which features a micro-version of the Flatiron Building!), the Louvre, US Capitol, Sydney Opera House, and more.

But back to the Eiffel Tower.

It’s a 321 piece model. The base that the model sits on has a few green and black tiles, but otherwise, the tower is a mess of a grey bricks.

I can’t tell you how long it takes to piece together because that really isn’t the point (although I can say that a WALL-E and a Doctor Who TARDIS models have been the most time-consuming by way of intricacies).

I can tell you,  for the rock-living uninitiated, that there’s nothing difficult about a LEGO set, no matter how many hundreds or thousands of pieces there may be. (Nothing difficult, that is, until your monster cat scatters a collection of tiny, easily lost bricks.) Every set comes off the shelf with simple, wordless  instructions that belie a deeper truth:

Great, complex things happen one tiny (seemingly insignificant) step at a time.

The Eiffel Tower comes in a handsome black box and the instruction manual, unlike typical LEGO sets, is also a small book with facts about the life-size structure in France. Those gray bricks typically come in smaller, numbered bags — you’re instructed to open one bag, put those pieces together, then move onto the next.

Regardless of the set, I like to open all the bags at once. This is the first step in my Zen of LEGO approach. This is where I begin to tune out all the noise of the world around me and slip into flow.

You’ve probably experienced flow in one form or another. It’s when you’re concentrated on a task — you’re in the zone — and time disappears.

In light of the world today, I call it a state of bliss. My neurotic, over-stressed, anxiety-prone brain is finally settled.

The din of the world fades and I begin sorting bricks.

It’s a simple process: all duplicate bricks are sorted and clicked together by way of a single stud until what was once a disorganized mess of plastic is now a neat, tidy collection of all the pieces of a grand puzzle.

I know there are people who will scoff at the time it takes to patiently sort 321 (or more) bricks and for those people, the best equivalent I can describe is mowing the lawn. Or vacuuming. Or that side-to-side sweeping satisfaction of powerwashing the driveway.

After all bricks have been sorted, it’s now time to build. And it always starts so innocuously: random pieces coming together and forming no recognizable shape.

But the flow envelops and we trust the instructions. Brick by brick, small pieces form larger pieces, elements become structures, and an Eiffel Tower begins to emerge.

An indeterminate amount of time later (the longer the better), the model is done and the real world beckons.

I’m not saying taking an hour or two (or three or six) to build a LEGO set will fix any of the problems with the world around us, but it will help turn the noise off for a little while.

That might not sound like much, but it’s really noisy out there.

And sometimes all we need is just a little break.

Fortunately, we have LEGO.

Or sex. That works, too.

​###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jordan Krumbine is a professional video editor, digital artist, and creative wizard currently quarantined in Kissimmee, Florida. When not producing content for the likes of Visit Orlando, Orlando Sentinel, or AAA National, Jordan is probably yelling at a stubbornly defective Macbook keyboard, tracking creative projects in Trello, and animating quirky videos with LEGO and other various toys.

Leave a dollar in the Tip Jar: https://ko-fi.com/krumbine

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http://www.krumbco.com

[dicloniusgames]

LEGO Architecture Singapore Build Review

Being able to travel is a wonderful thing, but being able to travel via LEGOs is an awesome thing...especially to places you’ve never been to. 

On January 1st, LEGO released the most recent skyline in the Architecture series as the Republic of Singapore. When I first saw this, I knew it had to be the centerpiece of my architecture collection as it would overtake Dubai as the largest set (which I’ll get into piece count later) and produced in a different kind of box (which I’ll also get into later). 

Design

While I’ve never been to Singapore, there’s one iconic setting in this set that has its’ own set which is Marina Bay Sands, but good luck finding it as that’s retired. I’m glad it’s included as I get to build a mini version of it and from the images shown, I think it looks a lot better than the standalone set. Other iconic settings included are the OCBC Centre, One Raffles Place, Lau Pa Sat and the Fullerton Hotel along with the tree garden in front of Marina Bay Sands which has interchangeable tops on the smaller tree crowns which give it a different look at the builder’s discretion. I chose to go with the ones provided in the instructions. 

Build & Difficulty

At 827 pieces, this is the largest architecture build so far put out by LEGO which I was surprised by at first as I was used to the 500-600 piece designs I’ve built previously and hadn’t built an architecture set in a while. 

The base was actually simple to build this time along with the Singapore River. One of the few things that can trip you up is building the boat quay and the houses within it as it can be a little difficult to put them in the right spot and place the roof pieces on how the instructions show along with the box. The other “hard” element of the set is building One Raffles Place. At first it does look easy until you’re dealing with the black pieces that represent the windows of the building and the pattern can get harder to follow as you sometimes don’t know if you need a 1x1 or 1x2 piece besides the pieces the instructions have arrows pointing down. Marina Bay Sands is the most exciting part of the build for me especially since I’ll never get to own or build the standalone Marina Bay Sands set (as it costs $2,000 on Amazon). Getting to build even a mini version of the Sands was exciting as while it seemed repetitive, it was a simple form of repetitiveness that didn’t get boring as when you build the roof, that repetition was well worth it when you hook in the roof via six support pieces at the bottom of the roof build in three open spaces. While the garden itself isn’t anything difficult, it’s nice to have four interchangeable tree toppers if you want to change the look of the garden every now and then. 

Final Thoughts

The Singapore skyline is a good challenge for those looking to get into the architecture theme as it bucks the trend of it being just another 500 or 600 piece set. At 827 pieces for $59.99, you’re definitely getting a good value of price per piece. You also get a mini Marina Bay Sands which will satisfy architecture builders who never got a chance to build the standalone Marina set. It will also grab the attention of people who either live in or have been to Singapore as they’ll recognize iconic landmarks. A couple of the only downsides have nothing to do with the set itself. One being the box design as it isn’t a standard architecture box so you’ve got to use your thumbs to open two flaps on the side thus ruining the box and the instruction book looks out of place if you place it next to other architecture instruction books. As with the set itself, the only downside is part of the build of One Raffles Place as the window pattern can get a little confusing at first after putting on the first layer of those pieces. Otherwise, this set is well designed and a good challenge for architecture fanatics, maybe not as demanding as something like The Statue Of Liberty or the Empire State Building, but for a skyline, it’s a little demanding. 

Pros: 

+Great attention to detail & accuracy of Singapore

+Fun elements to build 

+Great piece count for the price 

+May potentially lead to larger skyline sets 

Cons: 

-Weird box design leaves the box useless 

-Unusual look to the instruction book

-Some build elements can get tricky 

Score: 

Build Design: 4.5/5

Build Difficulty: 3.5/5 

Creativity & Fun: 3/5

Final Score: 11/15

Final Grade: C

Recommendation: Wait For Sale

[yasbxxgie]

How One Man Is Using Hip-Hop to Diversify Architecture Armed with a master’s degree in architecture, decades of hip-hop fandom and rapper teachers, Mike Ford is quickly getting kids into building

On a recent Thursday, Grand Wizzard Theodore was busy DJing in his home borough of the Bronx. Theodore is widely acknowledged as the man who invented turntable scratching, so his presence behind the decks was not unusual. The venue, however, was unexpected: The Cornerstone Academy for Social Action – a middle school, where Theodore’s selections were soundtracking furious Lego-building.

While Theodore cued up hits, Mike Ford, founder and leader of Hip-Hop Architecture Camp, was guiding a group of sixth, seventh and eighth graders as they assembled Lego models based on rap lyrics. Students gathered around the table where one of their peers was working with lines from Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message:” “Broken glass everywhere/ People pissin’ on the stairs, you know they just don’t care/ I can’t take the smell, can’t take the noise/ Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice.”

This student created a literal representation of the song’s image: a staircase, a sprinkle of green pieces for “broken glass everywhere” and scattered yellow pieces for “people pissin’ on the stairs.” “Good start,” said Ford. But he gently pushed the student towards a more constructive response to “The Message.” “Could there be a building made from all the broken glass?” Ford wondered. “Let’s start to think about how we can make it so that nobody has to say those words in their song again.”

Ford sees his teaching as a way to counter the troubled history of urban planning in America. “We’ve decimated cities that were built by the hands of African Americans – like Black Bottom in Detroit, or here in the Bronx, when they built the Cross Bronx Expressway through a community of color,” he says. “Those decisions are made by people outside of those communities. There are a limited amount of people at the table to advocate for our communities.”

Hip-h[H]op Architecture Camp attempts to correct that representational imbalance, using rap as a hook to introduce young minority students to a field they may not otherwise encounter. “I have been on this planet for several decades, and I have moved in some pretty radical circles, but personally, I cannot recall meeting a melanated architect in my whole life,” says Chino XL, a veteran rapper who attended the camp in the Bronx. “Just for these children to know it’s a thing, that’s important.”

“I’m letting kids know we have a history of building spaces and places,” Ford adds.

For more than a year, Ford, a longtime hip-hop fan with a master’s degree in architecture, has led sessions like this around the country. (Ford has planned nearly 20 sessions nationwide this year.) The idea for the camp came from a simple insight made while Ford was in graduate school at the University of Detroit: “Less than three percent of architects in America are African American,” he explains. “We’ve spent a ton of money trying to diversity the profession, but it’s always from the same perspective: Come learn this western culture. Come learn about the Greeks and the Romans. It’s not making it relevant.” The tendency to emphasize the importance of certain models – Greek but not Egyptian, for example – means “we’ve experienced the world through a limited lens,” Ford says.

He is also interested in the aesthetic connections between hip-hop and architecture. “Music is saturated with references to architecture,” Ford says. “Not just critiquing your environment, but in the songs, [rappers] express what they wish architecture was. KRS-One talks about hip-hop artists buying property to build a hip-hop city.”

It’s not a coincidence for Ford that Kanye West recently expressed interest in architecture and community planning “for like the third time.” (“He also said a lot of other stuff that I don’t agree with,” Ford notes.) Ice Cube studied architecture before co-founding N.W.A, and Pharrell Williams included discussions of architecture in his 2012 book Places and Spaces I’ve Been.

Ford aimed to strengthen the relationship between the hip-hop and architecture communities with a summit he organized earlier this year. Architects attended the event along with the lyricists Chino XL, Lupe Fiasco and Nikki Jean. “They talked about city skylines, if they can write bars that fit within those lines to see how each city sounds,” Ford says. “Is there a hidden sonic experience within these environments?”

Anyone who can tell the difference between Golden Age New York hip-hop and Los Angeles gangster rap knows intuitively that there are connections between music and place. Then the question becomes, if space impacts rap, what happens when you change the space? “How do we make architecture so that people stop saying, ‘I want to hear another track like “The Message”‘?” Ford says. “I want to stop the cycle, and stop the environment that’s influencing some of these songs that are very challenging.”

During the five-day program held in New York in May, students used rap lyrics as a basis for Lego models, practice working with the three-dimensional design program Tinkercad, hone their own rap verses, often with help from professional MCs, and create a music video. Autodesk, the company behind Tinkercad, provides the software to Ford for free and helps fund the camps. “When you meet Mike and you hear what he’s doing, you can’t help but want to be involved,” Sarah O’Rourke, Autodesk’s youth audience strategist, tells Rolling Stone. “We’re looking to inspire kids, and what better way to do it than with music they’re already involved with?”

The Bronx students hunted for architectural connections in “The Message,” Nas’ “I Can” and Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” They were focused, only breaking from their modeling efforts to perform an impromptu line-dance to Migos and Drake’s “Walk It Talk It” or to lobby the DJ: a sixth grader named Dirk politely asked Grand Wizzard Theodore to play a song from the rising Brooklyn rapper 6ix9ine. Theodore had misgivings about the track – “a lot of negativity in that record; our kids need better role models” – but he cued it up anyway.

Theodore started visiting schools in 2002 with his Scratch Academy before connecting with Ford’s architecture camp. “To be able to go to school and have some people talk to me about my life, I didn’t have anything like this,” he said. “I grew up in abandoned buildings, fires all over the place, people smokin’ dope and nodding in the corners. I want to be able to turn on the TV and see a kid from the Bronx – that grew up the same way I grew up – building buildings.”

Both Theodore and Ford hope that more hip-hop artists will participate in future Hip-Hop Architecture Camp sessions, raising the program’s profile and expanding its reach. “The artists that have the biggest voice ­– that these kids see on TV every day that they play their records on the radio every six minutes – those are the artists that should be doing these programs,” Theodore says.

“We need to have youth hear it right from the artist,” Ford adds. “[Artists] have been influenced by the environment. I want to give them the opportunity, in turn, to influence their environment.”

In addition to enlisting more rappers to participate in his camps, Ford ultimately hopes to train others to lead sessions so they can take place in multiple cities at once. “It’s cool to have Mike Ford going to every city,” Ford says. “But I ended my TED talk with, I want to create an army of architects that can right the wrongs of modernism in communities of color. It’s about the dissemination of this curriculum to as many people as possible.”

For now, Ford’s army remains small, but it’s growing. Chino XL’s visit to the Cornerstone Academy marked his first time participating in the camp. “I was overwhelmed at how many kids signed up for it on a Saturday and Sunday, and how completely focused they were on what the goal and the initiative was,” the rapper said.

Ford called his work “making advocates,” and many of his students in the Bronx quickly grasped his mission. Toward the end of the first day, Dirk, the sixth grader, presented a model he built based on a line from Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”: “When laws were stern and justice stood.”

“When [Slick Rick] said, ‘when laws were stern … ,” I don’t really think that resonated with me,” Dirk told the class. “Now we’ve got a lot of people being arrested for no exact reason – like Kalief Browder, who the sixth grade is learning about now, who committed suicide because he went to Riker’s Island for three years for a crime he did not commit. He was given the opportunity to plead guilty, but he never did because he knew he didn’t do it.”

Dirk was imagining an alternative outcome. “This police station is supposed to represent a better future,” he said, “without false accusations.”

This episode drove home Ford’s words from earlier in the day. “These kids can have an immediate impact,” he asserted. “And they can create architecture we have not seen before.” [h/t]

Photograph:

The rapper Chino XL teaching students at Hip-Hop Architecture Camp (top)

[mocfactorystore]

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MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

This creation is ispired by the Star Wars universe and condensed within the LEGO format of  a Skyline Architecture set. There are a whole lot of scenes, places and automobiles recreated from the primary two trilogies. If you may’t spot all of them there’s a record beneath. You can find more images on my flickr page

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

NABOO TATOOINE DEATH STAR Naboo Palace Naboo Starfighter Trade Federation Tank Star Destroyer Devastator Tantive IV Luke’s Landspeeder Sandcrawler Trench Run Tie Fighters Darth Vader Tie X-Wing Millennium Falcon Y-Wing HOTH BESPIN ENDOR Executor Echo Base Shield Generators Snowspeeder AT-AT Imperial Probe Droid Cloud City Slave One Cloud Car Ewok Village Imperial Shuttle Speeder Bikes AT-ST DEATH STAR II A-Wing B-Wing

Dimensions cm     37.5x 10 x 19 inch      15 x  four x 7.5 studs     47 x 12.5 x 23.5 weight 388 gr / 13.7 oz

Instructions Page Sample, additionally, you will get XML for bricklink and the sticker for the entrance plate.

MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

Warning: This design is “impressed by” , however on this brick type it is the mental property of MOMAtteo79. Any resale of these things, with out categorical permission from MOMAtteo79 is an act of fraud and can end in authorized motion.

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Want to purchase this MOC to construct? You’ll have to buy the parts and the building instructions utilizing the tabs beneath.

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MOC-19493 Star Wars Skyline Architecture

by BakkerBuilder

[mylegoarchitecturecollection]

Sydney Skyline

[krystangreen-blog]

Alicia Keys captured the essence of New York City in her song Empire State of Mind when she wrote, “Now you’re in New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you.” Likely, you too will find yourself enraptured by this city’s buoyant energy the moment you step off the plane.

If you’re already familiar with things to do in New York City, you’ll want to dig deeper into the city that never sleeps with each visit. But for those new to NYC, you’d be remiss if you came here and skipped any of these classic must-do experiences.

Sightsee for Less

Save with the New York Pass

Includes FREE entry to 100+ top New York attractions.

Take in the View from the Empire State Building

The Empire State Building provides spectacular views of New York City. Your experience begins at the 34th Street entrance and Visitors’ Center where you’ll pass through security and buy your tickets before boarding second-floor elevators that take you to the top.

Highlights of your visit include the 80th floor Dare to Dream Exhibit depicting the iconic 102-story Art Deco building’s 13-month construction in 1930-31. The 86th floor is New York’s highest open-air observatory and the world’s most famous where 360-degree views include Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. The 102nd-floor wraparound top deck offers panoramic views up to 80 miles away. Your experience ends in the stunning 5th Avenue Lobby.

Some tips for your visit – skip the line with an Express Pass, beat the crowd by arriving before 11 a.m., and use the second-floor bathrooms before getting in line for elevators. Note that kids under six are free. The second floor ESB store is open whenever the building is open. Shops and restaurants line ground level along 33rd and 34th streets, and 5th Avenue.

The Empire State Building is open 365 days from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Meet Lady Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is the most recognizable icon of the United States, a symbol of freedom and democracy. There are a number of ways to experience Lady Liberty in New York Harbor, both free and paid.

You can see the Statue of Liberty for free from the Staten Island Ferry that leaves Manhattan’s Battery Park every half hour. The 25-minute ride through New York Harbor passes by the Statue offering riders great views. Or, you can stay on land at Battery Park and enjoy the view from there. Head to the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn for great land views from Louis Valentino Jr. Pier.

For the full experience, take a tour of Liberty Island followed by Ellis Island with Statue Cruises, the only vendor authorized by the NPS to land on the islands. If you plan to climb to the Statue pedestal or crown, you have to make advance reservations. There are 377 steps to the crown and no elevators.

A final option is a New York Harbor cruise that circles the Statue of Liberty. Dinner cruises are popular, offering magnificent nighttime views of the Statue and the Manhattan skyline.

Attend a Broadway Show

We saw Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child during our last visit to New York City. I highly recommend both.

Getting a ticket to the Broadway show of your choice can be arduous. Many of your favorites may already be sold out, but don’t despair. If you’ve been lusting after tickets to Hamilton or Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, there may still be a way. If you’re creative, you may not even have to pay full price.

The easiest way to get a ticket to a show on Broadway is to purchase it online months in advance. Since this won’t work for everyone, here are some other things to try. (The more flexible you are, the better your chances.) Grab some same day discounted show tickets from TDF’s TKTS Booths at 47th and Broadway or 62nd and Broadway – many with deep discounts. If you have your heart set on a big show, try a lottery at the theater of choice, or on TodayTix.

Even if you aren’t able to secure a ticket to a Broadway show, consider off-Broadway. The tickets are cheaper and generally easier to come by, and you’ll still have a fabulous New York theater experience. (Harry Potter fans should book tickets to Puffs, a hilarious off-Broadway spin on the popular series.)

(Tip: Don’t forget that there’s also the Apollo Theater in Harlem which first opened in 1914 as a burlesque theater. When the city’s mayor banned burlesque, the theater was closed and reopened as the Apollo in 1934 showcasing African American performers from the Harlem Renaissance. The theater’s famous Amateur Night quickly debuted such greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie.

To get to the Apollo, you’ll make your way to the heart of Harlem on West 125th Street. You can tour the theater by joining a daily, guided group tour. One-hour tours are led by Mr. Billy Mitchell, who’s worked at the Apollo since 1965, so you’ll hear plenty of behind-the-scenes stories.

It’s also an electrifying experience to be part of the Amateur Night at the Apollo audience, cheering or deciding when to “sweep” a performer from the stage. Who knows? You may see the next Lauryn Hill, Jackson 5, or James Brown.)

Spend Time in Central Park

The state of New York set aside 750 acres of urban parkland in 1853, which became Central Park. It’s known as the lungs of New York City with thousands of trees that help to improve the air quality, myriad of jogging and biking paths, and green space to enjoy in good weather. There are so many things to see and do here, you’ll want to check out their official website, visit one of their Visitor Centers, or grab an interactive map to chart your own course.

A must-see in Central Park is the famous Central Park Mall & Literary Walk. This is the most photographed and recognizable part of the park having been featured in countless films. Mature elm trees form an elegant arc over a wide pedestrian walkway lined with benches. At its southern end is the lesser known Literary Walk with statues providing tributes to prominent writers.

Other park highlights include the bronze Alice in Wonderland sculpture, Wollman Ice Skating Rink in winter, the 1908 vintage carousel, Central Park Zoo, the Dairy Visitor Center & Gift Shop, and Bethesda Terrace. Families love Conservatory Water for its climbing sculptures, model boats, story-telling programs, and café. We tend to stay at Mandarin Oriental, New York in Columbus Circle because we like walking from the hotel into the park in a matter of minutes.

Experience Times Square

Times Square, aka Crossroads of the World, is the heartbeat of New York City. The billboards alone, or spectaculars as they’re known locally, are electrifying. At Midnight Moment, they’re also synchronized. This is classic New York, high energy hustle and bustle with everyone on the move. You’ll find something to please each member of the family in Times Square. It’s hectic but a must-do at least once in a lifetime just to say you’ve been there.

There are more than a few things to do at Times Square with kids. National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey is the most high-tech attraction with 60,000 square feet of exhibition space – for virtual sea life encounters. There’s a whole miniature world at Gulliver’s Gate, the best selection of Marvel comics at Midtown Comics, and three floors of chocolate at M&M’s World. And that’s only the beginning.

Other must-do Times Square attractions include touring Madame Tussauds wax museum and joining the studio audience for a TV show “Good Morning America.”

Explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Our most recent visit to the Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has assembled an astounding collection representing over 5,000 years of cultural artworks from around the world. One really could spend days here and it’s a top pick for things to do in New York City with kids. The Met even has a family map. My daughter has always loved the Degas ballerinas, Egyptian mummies, Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), and Arms and Armour.

To make the most of your time with this vast collection, you’ll want to choose a guided or audio tour (there is also an audio tour for kids) that matches your interests. You can choose from a variety of engaging one-hour tours presented in various languages that begin at the Great Hall.

The Museum Highlights tours are regulars with other tours on rotation depending on featured collections. All guided tours are free with the price of admission.  

You can spend all of your time at The Met Fifth Avenue (where most people start) or also visit The Met Breuer for an Architecture Tour, and The Met Cloisters for European medieval art and architecture audio tours. All three museum locations open at 10:00 a.m. seven days a week, but The Met Breuer is closed on Mondays.

Top of the Rock and Rockefeller Center

Head over to Rockefeller Center for a variety of activities. In winter, enjoy the massive Christmas tree and famous ice skating rink. During the rest of the year, admire some of the best NYC views from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck or take a behind-the-scenes tour of NBC Studios. Make a booking for brunch at the famous Rainbow Room. Snag a banana pudding and cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. Also popular with kids is the enormous LEGO store, Nintendo store, and FAO Schwarz.

Don’t forget that you can request tickets for the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon or even catch a performance at Radio City Music Hall.

Close proximity to Rockefeller Center is a benefit to staying at The Towers at Lotte Palace.

Take a Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge

Many New Yorkers consider walking across the Brooklyn Bridge a rite of passage. Visitors wanting to experience New York like a local flock to the bridge to check it off their bucket list too. The popular pedestrian walkway, elevated above traffic, connects Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Bridge is hands down the most iconic bridge in New York City, featured in films like Saturday Night Fever and Gangs of New York, among others. The architecture alone is stunning, but be sure to take note of the Manhattan skyline on your way across. Guided walking tours are available, including some focused on the bridge’s history or architecture.

At just over a mile long, it will take a half to full hour to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, one way. You’ll want to plan for it to be pretty windy with no protection from the elements. Wear a hat and sunscreen in the summer. Also, walkers share the bridge with cyclists, so be cautious. There are no essentials on the bridge like bathrooms, snacks, or water.

We started on the Brooklyn side and walked across to Manhattan. It’s a bit of a walk from the Brooklyn subway station (about 10 minutes) to the base of the bridge. It’s a well-marked path but not exactly through a major thoroughfare. On both sides, during a hot summer day, vendors sell much-needed bottled water and ice cream. 

Pay Respects at the 9/11 Memorial

Many visitors to New York City want to pay their respects to the victims of September 11 with a visit to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The two are located adjacent to each other on an eight-acre Memorial Plaza, and are part of the larger 16-acre World Trade Center. They serve as a tribute to those who lost their lives as a result of terror attacks on February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001.

The 9/11 Memorial Plaza includes 400 white oak trees, and two one-acre pools with the nation’s largest manmade waterfalls where the twin towers once stood. Every name of those who perished is inscribed in bronze surrounding the two Memorial pools. Memorial Glade includes six stone monoliths dedicated to rescue and recovery workers, relief workers, survivors, and community members affected by the attack. The Survivor Tree that endured the attack is a symbol of resilience and rebirth.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum is the nation’s primary institution dedicated to the remembrance of September, 11. Visitors will find state-of-the-art multimedia exhibits, monumental artifacts, and significant archives. The museum tells the story of both victims and survivors. Visitors can purchase tickets for guided Memorial tours, Museum tours, or combination tours which are also included options on various New York sightseeing passes.

Bask in the Nostalgia of Coney Island

Seriously, Coney Island was much more fun than I thought it would be.

Even if you’ve never been to New York City, you’ve likely heard of Coney Island. This nostalgic seaside resort is embedded in our culture through our music, theater, film, literature, television, and even video games. Once upon a time, over a century ago, it was the preeminent seaside getaway in America.

Today, it’s been revitalized to recapture at least some of its former allure. There are new bars and restaurants, and even the amusement park has gotten a major facelift. But the old carny-style ambience has remained too. You’ll find some of the same concessions that have been here for decades, an enduring circus sideshow, the traditional annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, and of course, the famous boardwalk.

Must-do experiences at Coney Island include riding the Cyclone wooden roller coaster at Luna Park, and the 150-foot 1920s Wonder Wheel Ferris wheel at Deno’s Wonderwheel Amusement Park next door. An afternoon at the beach, or visit the New York Aquarium along the iconic Boardwalk are also good bets. Grab a hotdog from Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, or a caramel apple from the 75-year-old Williams Candy store. If it’s playing, you can even watch a family-friendly sideshow.

Save on Things to Do in New York City With Sightseeing Passes

There are several options for NYC sightseeing passes that help you save month on attractions. They also conveniently allow you to skip the ticket booth lines in many cases.

The New York Pass is a popular all-inclusive pass for active sightseers as it includes admission to over 100 attractions across 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. 

Less active sightseers or those who are weaving in a few major attractions in between eating glorious food and shopping may prefer the New York Explorer Pass. We used this during our trip a few months ago. This NYC sightseeing pass provides entry to 3, 4, 5, 7, or 10 attractions and tours from 90 options. You have 30 days to use the pass from its first activation.

Both are accessible via mobile phones apps so that you can skip the ticket lines and go straight to the gate in many cases. They also don’t require you to choose which attractions to visit in advance with the exception of guided tours which need reservations.

What are your favorite things to do in New York City?

[connorrenwick]

Where I Work: Duan Tran of KAA Design

As with many people around the world, KAA Design partner Duan Tran had to carve out a workspace at home during the ongoing pandemic. Luckily the licensed architect, husband, and father of three, designed an addition to his Culver City, California home last year that added much needed space, and now, a spot for Tran to work. The dining room setup gives him the space during the day to spread out and work while easily transitioning to dinnertime in the evenings. The space is filled with natural light, especially when the folding door system is open, making it perfect for detailed work, at the same time as keeping an eye on his children playing outside. For this month’s Where I Work during quarantine times, we visit Duan Tran at home to see how and where he’s getting his work done.

What’s your studio/work environment like?

Great natural light and a view! When we transitioned to a work from home mode, I quickly set up shop at our dining table which overlooks the backyard garden and has great natural light throughout the day. I’m fortunate to live in a climate [southern California] that allows me to open our folding door system and achieve a wonderful indoor/outdoor working environment.

How is your space organized/arranged?

Tidy and minimal. I’m not one for too much fuss, so my traveling laptop and what I may be working on for the day are all I have on the table. Given the fact that I work at the dining table, it’s easy to clean up and transition to dinner time at the end of the day.

KAA Design office

How long have you been in this space? Where did you work before that? If you could change something about your workspace, what would it be?

123 days… but who’s counting! Our workplace office is a dynamic and creative work environment with great energy. I tremendously miss the energy of being in that high energy environment with all of our talented team doing great things together.

Is there an office pet?

Absolutely, where would we be without Fox and Pepper?!

Do you require music in the background? If so, who are some favorites?

I love music. John Mayer, Maroon 5, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone are a few favorites that I find myself humming a tune to during the day!

How do you record ideas?

Email. I have a thousand draft emails in my mailbox that I use to collect ideas and thoughts. Since I always have my phone, it’s easy to type in something quick everywhere and anywhere.

Do you have an inspiration board? What’s on it right now?

Given our work from home environment, I’ve been more focused on creating inspiration boards on both Pinterest and Instagram. I love the mobility of it all and my ability to add or call up an inspiration image anywhere I go.

What is your typical work style?

I’m fairly regimented in my work style. Given all of the touches that I need to have with clients, team members and other colleagues, I find myself a slave to my daily calendar to ensure I cover all of my bases during the workday. For focused design time, I love working late at night when it’s quiet and just me. I must say I have seen the sunrise from time to time when I find myself in my happy place, inspiration wise.

What is your creative process and/or creative workflow like? Does it change every project or do you keep it the same?

Great question. I would have to describe it as consistent, linear and layered. I’m very iterative in how I approach design. It usually starts with a big idea, or an unforgettable design image that I love, then I run it through a series of iterative studies that allow me to edit away and find the purest essence of a project or concept.

What kind of art/design/objects might you have scattered about the space?

What started off as child’s play with my LEGO collection has continued on to influence and entertain me to this day. I’m especially fond of the Lego “Architecture” series that has scaled replicas of many of the world’s iconic skylines and buildings. The best thing honestly is that it gives me an opportunity to bond with my daughters and engage in something I am passionate about.

What tool(s) do you most enjoy using in the design process?

We utilize a 3D BIM platform called ArchiCAD that allows us to explore design concepts three-dimensionally, fluidly, and very early on. It’s been quite the game-changer for us, not only internally, but also externally with our clients, because we can present design in a way that is much less technical and beyond 2D.

Let’s talk about how you’re wired. Tell us about your tech arsenal/devices.

I’m completely wired into my iPhone which allows me to access email, people, drawings, and quite honestly anything else that I could ever need during the day. Our needing to work more remotely has further pushed my dependence on devices like this.

What’s on your desk right now?

We are finishing up an exciting design concept for a private residential compound in Dubai. Beyond that, keeping a watchful eye on my kids is always top of mind.

Is there a favorite project/piece you’ve worked on?

We recently completed a project in Southern California that I’m personally very proud of. Situated on a 2.5-acre hilltop property, we designed a very unique site-specific private residence that hovers overtop the existing hillside while framing amazing indoor-outdoor views of the Pacific Ocean beyond.

Tell us about a current project you’re working on. What was the inspiration behind it?

Our latest project in Dubai was an exciting exploration into how we could modify the landscape and grading to achieve some unique opportunities for natural light to infiltrate and play with the architectural form of the residence below grade. We were inspired by the Antinori Winery in Italy, as well as Tadao Ando’s Benesse House in Japan.

Do you have anything in your home that you’ve designed/created?

My current work from home workspace. We fortuitously took on the challenge of doing an addition to our existing home last year to give our family of five more living space and to thoughtfully connect to the rear yard. It’s been quite the godsend to have this space given recent circumstances.

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MILAN — The lambent new tower of art galleries Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam-based firm, OMA, have designed for the Prada Foundation is a chameleon.

From the east, the elevation presents a slim, unadorned, milk-white concrete block, nine stories high, punctured by loggias — a signpost, like the traditional village bell tower, rising above a low, scruffy neighborhood.

To the north, where the facade meets Milan’s skyline and becomes mostly glass, cantilevering over the street, the block breaks into a zigzag of shifting floor plates, rectangles and trapezoids, the whole building wedged onto a triangular plot.

The south end makes plain how the structure stands up. An ensemble of enormous cables encased inside a giant beam counteracts the thrust of all those heavy, cantilevered concrete decks. Like a sword in a stone, the beam angles from the top of the tower through the red-tiled roof of an adjacent former warehouse, anchoring in the floor below.

In the Arthurian legend, the wizard Merlin put the sword in the stone. Koolhaas must be Merlin, I suppose. That makes Miuccia Prada, the Lady of the Lake.

The tower completes the arts campus OMA has spent the past decade conceiving for the Prada Foundation. An offshoot of the global fashion conglomerate, dedicated to contemporary art and culture, the foundation commissions new art, presents exhibitions and organizes film festivals and other events. It also oversees the vast art collection that Prada and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, have put together. For years, it operated in far-flung locales.

In 2008, Koolhaas and a partner, Christopher van Duijn, were enlisted to reimagine a former, turn-of-the-century distillery Prada owned as the foundation’s permanent home. Walled-in, abutting a weedy stretch of railroad tracks, the distillery was a picturesque assortment of dilapidated stables, a bottling facility, a carriage house, some offices and warehouses.

The architects cleared away some of the old buildings, refurbished others. They built new ones. The tower was the last piece of the puzzle.

Without it, the site first opened to the public in 2015. It featured about 120,000 square feet of new or reconfigured exhibition space; a new cinema; a new two-story Miesian pavilion of wide open gallery spaces, called the Podium, the whole building clad in light, shimmery panels of foamed aluminum, an automotive and medical industry material also used for bomb blast absorption that looks a little like rough stone. There was even a 1950s-style Italian cafe straight out of a Wes Anderson movie.

That was because Wes Anderson designed it.

Chameleons themselves, Koolhaas and Prada made natural confederates. She was the famous communist turned high-fashion mogul whose empire evolved from bags and backpacks constructed out of an industrial nylon lining material. He was a prophet of global cities who declared the countryside his real passion after everyone else jumped on the urbanist bandwagon.

Her clothes always seemed less about what men desired than what whet her creative appetite. He was once invited to propose an expansion for the Museum of Modern Art and thumbed his nose at the selection committee by suggesting a billboard that said “MoMA Inc.” They were both contrarians and closet optimists.

And they shared a sense of humor. At one time it was rumored that Prada might back the Dutch architect for a seat in the Italian Parliament.

The foundation became their love child. It is unlike the eye-popping art gallery Frank Gehry designed for the Louis Vuitton Foundation beside the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, with its billowing glass sails, conjuring up flounces of silk and memories of Bilbao. The Prada campus feels, by comparison, world-weary, sneakily luxurious and — especially with its new tower — a mini-city, fragmentary, full of craft and secrets. Cities enshrine history and agitate for change. They’re forever unresolved.

This has been Koolhaas’ mantra. It is reflected in a foundation that’s neither a preservation project nor a tear-down-and-build-new venture. Its mode is bricolage. More is more. Both is better.

Cities are theaters and shape-shifters, too. I’m vaguely reminded of the old Cinecittàstudios outside Rome, where Fellini worked and Anderson has made films. A stable house in the former distillery now resembles the cabinet rooms in old master museums. A tiny, Alice in Wonderland door opens onto an immense warehouse, 60 feet high and 200 feet long.

And a building nicknamed the Haunted House is slathered in gold leaf, like an early Renaissance panel painting. (“A very cheap cladding material,” Koolhaas has insisted, “compared to marble or even paint.”)

“There is no difference between gold and rags,” Michelangelo Pistoletto, the veteran artist, once said. Pistoletto made his bones in the 1960s as a founder of arte povera, the Italian twist on post-minimalism. Writing in 2001, after Koolhaas’ Prada shop opened in downtown Manhattan, critic Herbert Muschamp noted Prada’s philosophical roots in arte povera.

Muschamp recalled how art povera consisted of “old bedding and tar-stained rope” displayed “in barren, out-of-the-way locations.”

Somehow, he added, “you always needed a private jet to get there.”

Up to a point, that describes the foundation, with its fetishized lowdown materials like chipboard and orange construction fencing and slightly out-of-the-way location, south of the city’s center.

Arte povera isn’t the only ghost of midcentury modernism inhabiting the project — there’s the twee cafe, with its Formica furniture and veneered wood paneling; the new tower restaurant, with its furniture bought at auction from New York’s Four Seasons; the cinema, with chairs imported from ‘70s-era Milanese movie houses; and the sun-baked, deeply shadowed squares, conjuring up de Chirico.

At the same time, there are the custom sheets of very modern translucent polycarbonate and aluminum handrails milled like Ferraris. There are the oak wood box-on-end pavers and the repurposed metal prison grates painted lime green, which serve as screens in the coat checks and bathroom stalls.

Some visitors have complained the layout doesn’t tell you where to go. You find your way around it. Like in a city. I think that is a virtue.

But until now the project was missing its cornerstone where the 200-foot-high, 22,000-square-foot tower, or Torre, was meant to rise. Delays in construction stretched three years. They ended up allowing time to refine the design.

The tower’s six, stacked gallery floors were created as full-time showcases for Prada’s private art collection. They’re reached through a small, open-air lobby like a disco ball, with flashing screens and a dizzying cutout in the ceiling to reveal the building core’s scissored stairs. One flight up, mirrored bathrooms, industrial sinks and a patterned floor summon to mind Pierre Chareau and Superstudio.

The galleries above are one to a floor, no two rooms alike, each taller than the last, their layouts shifting with the floor plates, the lowest gallery, 9 feet high; the topmost, 26 feet high.

The middle-floor galleries end up feeling the nicest, proportion-wise. But the whole building is one narrative. As Federico Pompignoli, OMA’s project manager, has said, the tower is “an attempt at the white cube defying its own boringness.”

Much credit here goes to him. He oversaw every inch of construction and it shows. Elevator cabs clad in backlit slabs of rose and green onyx suggest medieval reliquaries. I am told blacksmiths from a tiny shop outside Milan hand-tooled the restaurant’s exquisite bar, sliding doors and custom-embossed the anodized aluminum panels on the terraces that look like expensive Lego pieces. I kept running my hands over the tower’s concrete walls. Infused with Carrara marble and poured by construction workers who wore white gloves, they feel smooth as silk.

The big rectangular and wedge-shaped galleries, windows alternating between panoramas of the city and narrow views over the campus, accommodate best the large-scale works in the inaugural show, “Atlas.” It features Jeff Koons, Mona Hatoum, Michael Heizer and others. Check out the restaurant if you go. Works by Carsten Höller and Lucio Fontana are on permanent display.

From “Atlas,” I made my way through the loan exhibition about fascist art that has taken over the pavilion and stables, watching a few of the old news clips of cheering mobs and Benito Mussolini in the cinema.

Then I wandered into Anderson’s cafe and ordered what may be the most delicious sandwich I have eaten in my entire life.

Private museums are mostly vanity projects. Few invent social spaces. It may be the ultimate tribute to Koolhaas and OMA to say that the Prada campus works. The plazas are poetic. The galleries are practical and varied.

Prada should be pleased and maybe a little worried. It’s up to the foundation to program these spaces for generations to come.

Architecturally speaking, there’s a lot to live up to.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

MICHAEL KIMMELMAN © 2018 The New York Times

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