New England Home Show 03/2002
Back in the early summer of 2001 NELUG was asked if they would like to participate in the GMC - New England Home Show in Boston Massachusetts. After some talk we decided to do the show. The theme of the show was "The Big Dig"(1).
Because the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge is the center piece of this project it was decided that a "near" Minifig scale version of the Bridge would be the center piece of our display. The bridge is made up of over 20,000 LEGO pieces, is 17 feet long and 7 1/2 feet tall. Approximately 300 man hours went into making the bridge. Of which 100 were design and setup and 200 were actual construction.
The Bridge was built over 3 Saturdays with about 10 - 12 people working for about 7 hours. Jorge Fernandez did much of the design work on the towers on the computer and the span itself was designed through trial and error. The cables are the only none LEGO in the Bridge.
The real LPZ will have 4 south bound and 6 north bound lanes. 2 of the North bound lanes are on the outside of the towers and are actually an onramp and eventually merge with the rest of the North bound traffic. This bridge is the widest Cable Stayed bridge in the world and the first asymmetrical bridge of its kind.
For the second part of the project it was decided that we would do a 12' x 5' mosaic of the Boston Skyline. The view chosen was the view of the Back Bay from over the Charles River.
This mosaic is made up of what amounts to 40 Mosaic sets and is made up of nearly 100,000 parts. Our biggest problem with the Mosaic is convincing people it is LEGO. Most think it is just a mural until we convince them to look closely (Plus that sand pit doesn't allow for close inspection).
Suzanne Rich did the image pixilation and Shaun Sullivan and Chris Phillips did much of the rest of the design and other leg work.
Our third responsibility was a play area for the kids that seems to have been a big hit.
We were stationed with a local Radio station, WROR, who ran a prize promotion in the sand pit in front of the mosaic. You can see pictures of that near the bottom.
Finally this was our biggest exposure yet. We appeared on the nightly news of at least 4 local stations including the local NBC, ABC, CBS, and WB affiliates. We also appeared in the 2 largest Boston newspapers, the Globe and the Herald along with several smaller papers.
1. - The Big Dig is the name given to the current public works/infrastructure project in Boston. This is the largest public works project ever done in the United States.
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