THE BUILDING
40 Wall Street (formerly the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building) is another building that held the title of the tallest building in the world (albeit for just a little over a month before the Chrysler Building was completed in 1930). It’s distinctive gothic-inspired green pyramidal roof is an instantly recognizable element of the Lower Manhattan skyline. 40 Wall Street was involved in a much-publicized race to become the tallest building in the world and ultimately lost to the Chrysler Building (which snagged the title thanks to its spire that was secretly constructed and added at the last minute).
THE MODEL
SCALE
1/192
PIECE COUNT
17178
HEIGHT
58 IN.
As with the model of the Chrysler Building, the success of this model would depend on how well I could reproduce its green pyramidal roof using LEGO. None of the designs I could think of (with bricks or plates stacked the normal way) was particularly convincing. As I scoured the internet looking for ideas for doing pyramidal roofs using LEGO, I noticed that the official LEGO Louvre set (21024) had used plates turned on their side and mounted on hinges to build the famous glass pyramid outside the Louvre. I ended up building the roof of 40 Wall Street using a similar technique – this even allowed me to accurately represent all the narrow windows in the roof.