



Adam Reed Tucker used to be an architect. Now, one of 11 "LEGO Certififed Professionals" in the world, he builds scale models of iconic buildings out of LEGOs. Tucker's creations are currently on display in the LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. From Smithsonian:

You got your degree in architecture from Kansas State University in 1996. How did you get from there to Lego Certified Professional?

In a nutshell, I worked for a number of architecture firms, and then I had my own practice. One day I had this idea of doing something a little different, being inspired by the events of 9/11 and realizing that a lot of people from the general public were intimidated by vertical architecture–skyscrapers. They weren't really visiting the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, because of what happened to the World Trade Center.

So, I thought it would be kind of neat to educate people on the engineering and the design that goes into these buildings. And I really didn't know how to go about it.

I thought "Well, the brick as a medium could be kind of whimsical to offset the intimidating nature of architecture." It's something that's not typically thought of outside of its usefulness as a toy.

I went out one day and I went to Toys R' Us and I filled up several shopping carts with Lego sets to get reacquainted with the brick.