Milwaukee’s iconic art museum could be a few votes away from being made into a limited edition Lego set available for purchase next year.
The MAM lego set was designed by Todd Elliott, a former Milwaukee resident.
“I’m excited because I really think that people in Milwaukee, art fans, architecture fans would love a set of the Milwaukee Art Museum,” says Elliott, who also designed a viral Brewers Racing Sausages Lego set idea last year.
His MAM design was accepted into BrickLink’s Designer Program competition. This year’s competition pits 375 designs against each other. The five winning designs with more than 3,000 pre-orders will be produced. Anyone with an account on BrickLink – an online marketplace and design software owned by LEGO Group – can vote for Elliott’s design.
His 1,186-part miniaturized take on the Santiago Calatrava-designed museum was inspired by Vida András’ 2018 Lego model that was submitted for the 2020 Lego Ideas Competition.
“For whatever reason, LEGO didn’t make [Andras’ version], and I was bummed out because I really wanted one,” Elliott says. “I just tried to figure out how he did it and build one.”
Elliott says that when he built András’ design himself, the building was two feet long and the Burke Brise Soleil wings were so heavy that they began to droop. The Quadracci Pavilion is not easily transferrable to Lego bricks, according to Elliott. “There are so many curves. There are some Lego [bricks] that have curves, but it can be kind of difficult to capture the essence of a building that isn’t square or rectangular.”
He used BrickLink’s design software to fine-tune the miniature pavilion through 11 total attempts until he landed on a successful model that was different from Andras’. He says his version is about half the size, with sturdier internal structures to support the wings and a more accurate design for the back of the museum. (And yes, the wings do move.)
Elliott submitted the instructions for how to build his final version to Rebrickable, a site dedicated to custom Lego designs, where someone from the Milwaukee Art Museum found it. “They put it on their Instagram and it got a lot of traction, people wanted to build it,” Elliott says.
BrickLink’s vote count for submissions are hidden, but Elliott feels good about his chances.
Voting for the MAM Lego design ends on Friday, Feb. 21. You can vote for it here.
