Milwaukee Art Museum: Santiago Calatrava's Quadracci Pavilion

This site specific piece is located on the shore of lake Michigan as it interacts with the open sky and vast body of water. Its "wings" or Brise Soleil slowly open and close daily in an impressive display of graceful movement. Santiago Calatrava said, "Rather than just add something to the existing buildings, I also wanted to add something to the lakefront. I have therefore worked to infuse the building with a certain sensitivity to the culture of the lake—the boats, the sails and the always-changing landscape." The dynamic movement of the wings, the bridge extending into the city, and the overall appearance of this piece greatly represents the city of Milwaukee. The photograph above was taken in 2010 against the city with the Brise Soleil extended outwards.

The image above is at a similar angle to the photograph of the art museum. In my LEGO model the the transparent pieces enable the light source to make the model shine.

This ariel view displays the wings extended outwards.

I have spent over a month working on this little side project of mine, finding time between school and work. I have an amazing job as a supervisor at the LEGO store in Mayfair Mall. I attend college at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am majoring in Industrial Design, a rigorous design program. I am not an architecture major but I do have a great appreciation for it.

When creating this model I had to constantly look back at images of the Calatrava and using my Brick Specialist expertise I had to figure out what pieces I could get a hold of that would make this model be as close as possible to the real thing.