City of Toronto Skyline - LEGO Architecture

Two of the most iconic landmarks on Front Street are the Royal York Hotel and Union Station.

Incorporating bricks with side studs into the Royal York allowed for the use of grill tiles to represent the columns of windows.

Meanwhile, the offset structure of Union Station was accomplished by including jumper plates in the model's base.

The Royal York may need a slight redesign soon, perhaps using brackets instead of bricks to achieve the same look but allow for the model to be more interconnected, and so I can include more grills on the back.

Next up, we'll start a mini-tour of Toronto's Financial District.

At the heart of Toronto's downtown core is a site so futuristic-looking that it was once featured in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Toronto City Hall is comprised of two curved assymetrical towers flanking a central saucer-shaped structure. The complex sits atop a raised deck, with a glass building-front under the deck that provides ground-level and wheelchair access. At the east end of the deck is a long ramp that leads down into Nathan Phillips Square.

Getting this to look just right in LEGO elements was a real challenge, but the final design captures the look remarkably well and it is quite sturdy!

The large urban plaza in front of City Hall is Nathan Phillips Square, which is open to the public year-round and is used for festivals and celebrations. Included here is the stage, the consessions building, the reflecting pool anf the colorful TORONTO sign.

I tried many different ways to have the three arches over the eastern half of the reflecting pool, positioned correctly and to scale. In the end, I decided to go with having the arches printed onto trans-blue panels.

Up next: The Fairmont Royal York Hotel and Union Station

Next on the tour is the most iconic landmark for the City of Toronto: The CN Tower.

The tallest free-standing structure in North America, this 553-m communications tower features a Skypod with two observations decks affording spectacular views and a rotating restaurant (you can actually rotate this part of the model!), and the Space Deck halfway up the spire which is one of the tallest observation levels in the world.

At the base of the tower is Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, with its characteristic shark decals on the roof. "Across the street" from the Aquarium is Roundhouse Park, featuring the Toronto Railway Museum.

Here is an updated view, with the new build of Rogers Centre. The half-circle-shaped Roundhouse is a simple 5-piece build, and is supplemented by the water tower and the railway tracks. The CN Tower visitor centre is visible at the base of the tower.

Up next: Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square.

I know the tour of the model took a break after only the first stop, but I just wanted to say that I finally completed the physical model of the set!

There are a couple of differences between this and the digital model, mainly due to not having the particular colour of element. Example: Royal Bank Plaza can't be Chrome Gold because they don't make plates and slopes in that colour, so it is Nougat instead. Also, if I had a working printer, I'd print out decals for Rogers Centre, Ripley's Aquarium and Nathan Phillips Square.

Also, Rogers Centre is slightly smaller, and the proportions of the CN Tower are slightly different - it's roughly the same height as the rendered version on the main page, but the main deck is slightly higher, and the spire is slightly shorter.

I'll continue the tour shortly!

The project has now reached 2,100 supporters, and it has been fully updated with the newest, and likely the final design of the model! Check out the images, above, and read up on all the changes to the model in the Description tag! Thanks to all the supporters so far!

With the model now in its ultimate form (barring any new elements that come out or building techniques I discover that would make it even better), I thought I would take everyone on a tour of the model, section by section. So, I present to you, the Toronto Tour!

First up: Rogers Centre, aka, SkyDome!

Located just to the west of the CN Tower, Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium, capable of seating roughly 50,000 people, and featuring a fully retractable roof. It is currently the home stadium of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The model can be fitted with the closed roof, as shown above. Or, to show off the details of the interior of the stadium, build the open roof instead.

The final model would not only include mockups of the digital scoreboards, the bank of hotel windows that face into the stadium, and the pennants and flags that hang above them, it would also feature the curved levels of stadium seating and the baseball diamond. You can almost hear the crack of the bat and the cheers of the fans!

Next update: The CN Tower, Ripley's Aquarium, and Roundhouse Park!

Hey! 2,000 supporters! That's great! Thanks to everyone so far!

And at the same time, I think I've now come up with the penultimate form for this model!

I had a close look at the scales of the buildings since the last update, and this newest version fixes some of the problems, especially with how the Financial District measured up to the Royal York and CN Tower. Plus, I changed the colour of the CN Tower (the real colour of the concrete is closer to tan/brick yellow), and I fixed the spire.

The only thing preventing this from being the ultimate form, at the moment, is the base of the CN Tower. I've tried a few different methods so far. This latest one features tow ball plates at the bottom of the three ends of the Tower's Y configuration, and tow ball socket plates in the model base as anchor points. It works well, but the base of the model isn't as clean as it was with previous methods. So, I'm still working on that.

The images below show off the new form of the skyline, though, which I'm liking quite a bit. I hope you all like it too! Please spread the word and let's get this project to 10k supporters!

Hi!

No new pictures in this update. However, that's because the project passed the 30 day mark! So, I edited it, to put the new model renders right on the project main page!

I've included all the design updates so far, based on feedback from you, the suppoters, and also just my own efforts to make the model as accurate as possible.

The latest changes, not already mentioned in previous updates:

• The Rogers Centre (Skydome) has gone through a major remodeling.

• Royal Bank Plaza has also been reworked

• The positions of some of the Financial District buildings have been adjusted to be a bit more accurate.

I hope you like the changes! On to 5,000 supporters!!

Once I can edit the project (soon!), I will replace the default images with new ones that reflect the latest changes. In the meantime, though, here are the images so that you can see the fully updated model.

If you were displaying this model, would you have the dome of Rogers Centre open or closed?

This update is to show off the new design for the dome. Previously, it was built in two sections, a removeable section to cover the south side of the stadium (towards the front of the model), and a section that would be moved back to expose the rest of the stadium to the sky.

This new design still gives two options, but they are slightly different. The closed dome is now one submodel that slots into the roof and connects to studs at the north end of the building.

The open roof is now another submodel that only covers the north end of the stadium. Unlike the previous design, this one makes the scoreboard and hotel room windows exposed to the sky, as they are in the real building.

I'm also interested in hearing your answer to the original question! Let me know by leaving a reply in the comments. Thanks!

Wow! Surpassing 1,000 supporters in just 10 days! Thanks so much to everyone for all the support so far! Here's hoping we can keep up the momentum to 5k and 10k! :)

During those 10 days, I was not idle. The gaps in the CN Tower have always bothered me, but I finally came up with a great way of resolving that issue with the design. The addition of the soft axle hoses not only closed up those gaps, they add a crucial detail to the tower at the same time.

I fixed up the details of the tower's spire, too, making it a more solid build.

The change to the tower's base made a new design for Ripley's Aquarium of Canada necessary. However, I think this new one is actually more true to reality.

I've been exploring new ideas about the roof of Skydome (aka Rogers Centre), as well, so stay tuned for more updates to come! :)