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http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=45564
October 14, 2004
LEGO Millyard model to cover 2,000 square feet
By BENJAMIN KEPPLE
MANCHESTER, N.H. — The SEE Science Center in Manchester's Millyard yesterday
unveiled the LEGO Millyard Project, a re-creation of the Millyard as it existed
around the year 1900.
The mammoth project, which will be built out of LEGO bricks and cover more than
2,000 square feet, should be finished by April 2006, in time for the center's
20th anniversary. When finished, it will be the largest permanent installation
of LEGO bricks in the world at minifigure scale. Yesterday, those plans were
displayed to the public and local officials, including Manchester Mayor Robert
Baines.
"I think what you'll see here today is just the very beginning of what this
project is all about," said Douglas Heuser, the center's director.
The very beginning, in this case, was one impressive-looking mill building
occupying a small portion of the building surface, a wooden construct measuring
95 feet long and 22 feet wide. When finished, there will be somewhere between 15
to 20 mill buildings dotted across the landscape, plus life scenes with people
and vehicles. The final product will be reproduced at a scale of approximately
55:1.
"More than a million bricks will go into it, and if you laid them end to end,
they would reach from the SEE Science Center to the Museum of Science in
Boston," Heuser said.
The ball for the project got rolling three years ago, when local inventor Dean
Kamen and Bob Tuttle, who along with Kamen owns several Millyard buildings,
visited LEGO owner Kjeld Kristiansen in Denmark.
They knew each other from the partnership between LEGO and the FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) group Kamen founded to
interest young people in math and science. They visited the LEGOLAND park in
Billund, and saw its "Miniland" attraction, in which life in various cities and
regions is reproduced with LEGO bricks.
"Both Dean and I were really impressed with this," Tuttle said.
And so, when Kristiansen paid a visit to the United States, Tuttle was able to
pitch their idea of a similar exhibit in the Millyard, and Kristiansen agreed to
it.
According to Heuser, the project will be built over several weekends in the
course of the next 1½ years. The first of those will be this weekend when master
builders from LEGO will work with SEE volunteers, as well as volunteers from
NELUG, the New England LEGO adult special-interest group.
Heuser also said the general public is welcome to see the progress. The center's
weekend operating hours are noon to 5 p.m.; admission is $5 per person. Expert
builders interested in helping can also e-mail Heuser, at
douglas@see-sciencecenter.org.
"We want to include the community as much as possible," Heuser said. "They can
either watch or, depending on their skill level, they can actually build."
The LEGO Millyard Project is a partnership between the SEE Science Center and
LEGO Systems Company Inc., the LEGO Company's Americas arm. FIRST will present
the display; CLD Consulting Engineers Inc. and NELUG will sponsor it.
STORY PHOTO:
http://www.theunionleader.com/doclib/photos/2004/october/o14a20model.jpg
Lego model designers Eric Varszegi, left, and Steve Gerling work on the Millyard
Project at the SEE Science Center in Manchester yesterday before announcing that
the 1:55 Amoskeag Millyard project, when finished, will be the world's largest
permanent Lego installation at minifigure scale. (TOM THIBEAULT/UNION LEADER)
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.nelug.org/
http://www.manchesterhistoric.org/mill.htm
http://seacoastnh.com/dct/millyardmuseum.html
http://www.lego.com
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