Hearst Tower

THE BUILDING

The Hearst Tower is one of New York’s most unique skyscrapers. It preserves the facade of a cast stone base that was built in 1928 but adds a striking glass tower that is packed with modern features and amenities. The diagrid framework of the glass tower maximizes interior floor space while using 20% less steel than conventional skyscrapers. When it was completed in 2006 to become the headquarters for the Hearst media conglomerate, the Hearst Tower also became one of the first “green” skyscrapers with all its energy-efficient features.

THE MODEL

Exploring the different LEGO piece options I had available for doing the glass facade, I quickly ruled out using trans-blue bricks. I didn’t find the look that these created to be particularly convincing. Instead, I borrowed the technique Sean Kenney had used for his model of the Trump International Tower to create walls with a layer of solid-colored bricks behind a layer of trans-clear bricks. Also, instead of using just blue for the inner wall I added dark blue stripes at the floor boundaries to give the facade some visual texture. The building process did get a bit tedious given that the glass tower is made up of 216 triangular panels. I found it easier to build these separately on base plates and then snap them into place (the 108 panels that taper downwards had to be built upside down on the undersides of large plates).