Author: andrewdgrover

I’ve been building some models of houses I see around Providence. Check some of them out in the Projects Section!

I am pleased to announce that PVDFest has commissioned a LEGO model of one of the most beautiful buildings in PVD: Mount Pleasant High School (as many had guessed). MP was a late 30’s Depression Era WPA structure (I learned this from Providence Preservation) and it shows that even in the depths of economic disaster, the people of Providence refused to put anything cheap, ugly, or compromising in their city. One of the largest civic structures in the city (indeed, my largest model), barely anyone in RI does not have some sort of cultural connection to this building (my grandmother went there for instance). Can’t wait to see you seeing the finished product at PVDFest in June!

I just got the first order in for the next project – 3000 of these little windows! Can you guess the PVD building that they’ll be part of? This one is going to be a BIG model (literally). When I get a little more built, I’ll reveal, but in the meantime, put PVDFest on your calendars!

I’m super happy to say that my Lego school buildings and I will be back at PVDFest this June! The details of what I will create for the show are still under wraps, but I’ll have an announcement soon!

If you have not checked out the model of Chester Barrows at the Auburn Library, this week is your last week!

https://www.cranstonlibrary.org/location/auburn-branch

Over the past few months, I got a couple of large donations – in LEGO! Thanks so much to the Ryan family from Cranston and Liz Gutauco from the Cumberland Public Library for giving me over 50 lbs of Lego bricks each! Like a lot of people, the Ryans had boxes of bricks in the basement from when their kids were young and now weren’t really sure what to do with them … until they saw one of my models on display! Similarly, Liz (a librarian at the Cumberland Public Library) had organized young adult library programming around a large Lego donation she had received. Liz read about my project, and when her programming finished up, she decided to pass on the donation! There’s a lot of sorting to do, and over the past few months, I’ve only been able to do a little here and there. A snowy February break day was perfect to get a big chunk out of the way.

It also helped that my car is in the shop getting a new clutch 🙂

Happy Charles Darwin birthday! Not much news from this past weekend – well none to interest people. I decided to put my workshop into the basement as my upstairs office was just not quite right for it. As you may know, we moved in October, and you know how it is: when you get into a new place, you make some decisions about where things should go, but after a few months of settling in, you can tell a few things don’t totally work. My good friend Tom Olson helped me move the wonderful old microfilm cabinets that I use for Lego organizing down two flights of stairs. Those cabinets are beautiful, but so heavy ….

Here’s what things look like until I get a chance to organize a little more. I really like the space, and am actually a big fan of creepy New England basements with weird pipes, old electrical stuff and stone foundations.

The Chester Barrows model is complete and on display at the Auburn Public Library (396 Pontiac Ave, Cranston) through the end of February. Please stop by and have a look!

The model of Chester Barrows is complete! Its a small model for a small school, but rich with detail. I tried some new things to capture the doorway columns and masonry work and it worked out well! You can see the model of Chester Barrows starting next weekend at the Auburn Library in Cranston – stayed tuned for details!

Happy MLK weekend! Like the rest of the 50 million people in the Northeast, I spent a lot of time indoors the past couple of days. Luckily, I don’t mind because I have an interesting hobby! I used the time to work on some of the architectural details of the Chester Barrows model. Consider this before and after:

That took up a big chunk of Sunday, but its these little details that make a super difference!

Stay warm, everyone!