St. Paul landmarks recreated in LEGO

​When Minnesotans think of LEGO, our minds may picture the infamous store in the Mall of America before thinking of the Minnesota State Capitol or the Cathedral of St. Paul. But Lego ambassador (yes, that's a legitimate volunteer-based program made up of adult LEGO hobbyists) Roy Cook, decided to recreate these landmarks brick by tiny plastic brick.
Each model is constructed of standard, un-altered LEGO pieces. This presented some challenges for Cook when it came to building the Cathedral's dramatic curves. After about 100 hours of construction time and a quick brush up on high school geometry, he was able to do it. Coming in at three and a half feet tall, this model is on permanent display on the lower level of the Cathedral. You can come see how 70,000 bricks stack up to the real thing.

Cook had to get creative with his LEGO pieces to recreate the many famous details of the State Capitol building. At a real-life diameter of 60 feet, the State Capitol has one of the largest self-supporting marble domes in the world. Instead of eagles, the birds perched around the model version are actually owls borrowed from the Harry Potter LEGO set, and the gold-leaf covered horses have been constructed out of yellow bricks. After about 100 hours of and approximately 75,000 bricks, Cook's version is six feet long, and, most impressive, the dome is self-supporting.

The Cathedral of St. Paul is open seven days a week for visitors, guests, and parishioners Sunday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The State Capitol is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, through November 8.   

Both events are free.

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