Milwaukee Art Museum - Quadracci Pavilion

The Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum is an iconic building located on the shore of Lake Michigan. Designed by Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2001, the museum addition has made it an international icon and a magnet for visitors to the city. My family and I lived in Milwaukee for a few years. I would pass by the museum on my commute to and from work every day. It is such a beautiful building and I loved seeing it. 

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I have seen previous attempts at building it using Legos and I drew inspiration from them. I tried numerous techniques to develop the connections to ensure the model is sturdy and stable while still allowing for movement of the museum's wings. The are a number of potential techniques that could be used for the window panes and wings. Some techniques that may work in Stud.io don't work well in the real world. Depending on the size of the model, the wings can become very heavy and can sag. Testing the connection I've used with actual bricks appears to work perfectly.

One of the more difficult aspects of the building is where the windows and wings end and it curves into the foundation. I experimented using slopes and curved slopes but finally determined using a similar connection style that I used for the window panes and wings worked best and was visually the most appealing and imitated the actual building the best.

I was also cognizant of the size of the model. I wanted to ensure it was large enough to capture the building's details but still small enough to display on a desk or bookshelf.

I really hope this can become an actual set. I know a LOT of people in would love to have one, especially those who live in Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin. This would also have great appeal to architects and those who love the Lego architecture sets.