August Bricks School: A Modular School With 8 Classrooms, Library, Cafeteria, and Elevator

Welcome to August Bricks School--Home of the Mustangs!

August Bricks School, or ABS, is a complete high school where students are taught to be the best version of themselves by following the pillars of Bravery, Respect, Integrity, and Curiosity (or B.R.I.C.).

August Bricks School is a 3-story building with 12 rooms, including classrooms for Social Studies, Math, Science, Language Arts, Music, Physical Education, Art, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). The school is also supported by a Library, Cafeteria, Main Office, and Restrooms along with a working Elevator.

August Bricks School is designed to be rearranged and opened up for ease of access and play. Each of the classrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors is an individual 16 studs by 16 studs build, allowing it to be separated from the rest of the school for the purposes of play or posing minifigures. Similarly, the 2nd and 3rd floor hallways can be removed, allowing easier access to the 1st and 2nd floors. The best part about this modular aspect is that you can determine the layout you prefer with the 2nd and 3rd floors as each of the 8 classrooms can fit in 4 different locations without changing the overall design of the school (from the 2nd floor to the same spot on the 3rd floor, for instance, or from the front of the 3rd floor on the right to the back of the 2nd floor on the left) and the hallways have the same footprint, allowing you to determine which is the 2nd floor and which is the 3rd. Furthermore, the entire school can open up along the sides of the hallway, allowing each side to be exposed in a dollhouse-style, providing easy access and views of all the building's rooms at one time and giving you the choice of how large the school's front will be in your city (from 48 studs wide when closed to 80 studs wide when opened). Lastly, the sidewalks in front of the school are all removable and interchangeable, allowing you to decide if the marquee sign should be on the left or right side of the school (that marquee sign is also two-sided, giving you the choice of a sign telling the football team to "Play Well" or a sign with info about an upcoming dance).

Additional details of note:

1.) The school has a working human-powered elevator that provides all of the staff and students at ABS access to all three floors of the building.

2.) The Main Office is home to the principal's desk, the school secretary's desk, as well as the school mascot's costume, which the principal can put on to drum up some school spirit among students and faculty.

3.) The Library comes complete with several packed bookshelves and a convenient book drop from the hallway for students to return their borrowed books.

4.) The Cafeteria provides students with numerous options for lunch, while the 1st floor hallway doubles as a seating area for students while they eat.

5.) The 1st floor is home to two gender-neutral bathroom stalls.

6.) The Social Studies classroom is currently focused on geography skills, but also has numerous historical references on the walls.

7.) The Math room has students currently learning geometric concepts like the equation for slope. You can find some extra calculators in the teacher's desk drawers.

8.) The Language Arts room provides students an opportunity to work on their poetry and writing, with a reminder on the structure of a haiku on the whiteboard.

9.) The Science room is full of lab space providing students the option to work on chemistry using the Bunsen burner or biology using the incubator or plant grow lights.

10.) The Physical Education room has a spin bike, treadmill, weights, and space for table tennis.

11.) The Art room has spaces for painting, drawing, working with clay, and cameras for photography. Unfortunately, someone has spilled some bright green paint all over the floor.

12.) The Music room is primarily set up for choir rehearsals, but there are a couple instruments there for students who want lessons.

13.) The STEAM room is loaded with technology, providing each student with a computer work station and being home to a 3D printer.

14.) Each of the 2nd and 3rd floor hallways is home to 12 lockers for students to put their backpacks and books. The 3rd floor also has a small study nook next to the elevator shaft.

15.) Large banners hang from the front of the school to reinforce the pillars of Bravery, Respect, Integrity, and Curiosity. These banners can be moved to the sides of the school when the building is in its open form to keep them visible.

Each classroom is designed to hold one teacher minifigure and up to 6 student minifigures.

August Bricks School comes in at 2990 pieces in total. The school has a footprint of 48 studs wide by 32 studs deep without its sidewalks and 48 studs wide by 40 studs deep with its sidewalks when in the closed position. In the open form, the school becomes 80 studs wide and 48 studs deep. The building is 23 bricks high when counting the 3 floors, while the roof and its architectural detail adds another 2 bricks in height (the elevator shaft and HVAC unit bring the height up another 3 bricks).

8 minifigures are included in this set, with 4 designed to be teachers and 4 designed to be students, each of the students comes with a backpack piece. Additionally, one student comes with a bike that can be parked in the bike rack, one comes with a wheelchair, and one is wearing a wrist cast. There is also the mascot costume which is nearly a full minifigure (just without a head piece).

This project is the result of my 18 years as a high school Social Studies teacher and my lifelong love of Lego and building Lego cities. While I find great joy in many Lego City and Lego Friends school sets, as a teacher I cannot help but notice that they generally provide very basic schools that only have one or two classrooms and very few other features modern schools contain--August Bricks School is my attempt to create as complete a Lego high school as I could within the piece count limit. I would love to have included additional aspects, such as a Technology Education wood shop, or a World Languages classroom, or a large gymnasium, but with the limited space and bricks provided I had to leave a few subject areas out.

On the chance you've gotten this far and are still wondering about why the name of the school is August Bricks School, here's the reason: August, being both a name and a term for something that is best or primary, allowed a bit of a play on words referring to how Lego are the best bricks for play. August Bricks School was then chosen for the full name as it can be abbreviated as ABS, another play on words referencing the type of plastic Lego bricks are made of (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). The pillars of August Bricks School are a little more straightforward, as Bravery, Respect, Integrity, and Curiosity can be made into the acronym B.R.I.C.--not quite the full work BRICK, but close enough. The Mustangs as school mascot was largely the result of searching through existing Lego stickers for those including potential animal mascots and finding the sticker used on the Lego City Horse Transporter set (60327) which worked well with a modified collectible minifigure Unicorn Knight Guy as a mascot.

Thank you for reading--I hope you choose to support August Bricks School!