Here’s your chance to build your own little oddly shaped slice of New York City from the comfort of your home.
As part of its Architecture series, which has brought landmarks from around the world — including New York City icons such as the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim Museum, Rockefeller Center and United Nations Building — Lego is now debuting its model of the Flatiron Building (available now for $39.99).
Despite its smallish size — it’s only about 5-inches tall — the 471-piece Lego set is a pretty strong representation of the building.
The triangular building, located at 175 Fifth Ave. between 22nd and 23rd streets, is a New York City landmark. It was built in 1902 and is one of the most memorable architectural features of the Big Apple. The thick instruction manual — which offers a history of the building and other interesting facts, includes author H.G. Wells’ 1906 quote about the building: “I found myself agape, admiring a sky-scraper … ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the afternoon light.”
The new set comes hot on the heels of the opening of the latest New York Lego Store, a neighbor in the Flatiron District at 200 Fifth Ave. at 23rd Street.
While you’ll have to create the rest of the neighborhood on your own, the Flatiron design is a clever combination of a bending brick infrastructure that gives the building its three-sided shape and tacked-on facades that capture the look of the building incredibly well.
The build is a bit repetitive, but the result is impressive and looks nice on the shelf.
