A School Rises Over The River

Perhaps the closest analogy I can make would be to a model train enthusiast, that is how my newly purposed and renovated basement space has inspired me to play! My vision is to create a Lego Urban Environment that is full of backstory and ideas. In other words: a fantasy world build one little plastic brick at a time.

Many of the buildings that I am starting out with I had already built over the past several years and with each staging I came to realize that only transforming the entire room into it's service would satisfy my growing desire to explore a complete world of Legolandia. At this point, mothers ought to warn their children; and fathers might prefer buying an etch-a-sketch and leave the Lego sets to less well informed parents.

Yet, be that as it may, in my Lego world the construction has begun in earnest on a public school.

This school, to be exact. It will be modular, but this ground floor is a single unit that actually snaps into place over the "River." It holds seven classrooms--K to 5 and a counselor's classroom, plus a nurse and two lavatories, as well as a receptionist space. I chose the shape of the windows on this floor because I like the idea of a classroom being like a fish bowl, and they are built over a river after all!

The 2nd floor will hold the formal Office, media hub, cafeteria, art and music classrooms. The 3rd floor is where you'll find grades 6-8, and the 4th floor 9-12. The class sizes are small and so the curriculum expands from a more traditional elementary set of content and instruction to a veritable university format in the high school.

In the process of construct- ing a building, I usually do a good bit of research and explore a wide range of examples, ideas and styles. This municipal building from Galveston, Texas built at the end of the 19th century was a particular inspiration, and then when push came to snap, I went with those crazy fish bowl windows! But fear not--I have not given up on my original inspiration. Time will tell how the two styles will meld into a unified idea. It's part of the fun.