Here at TBB we’ve long admired Paul Hetherington‘s vivid, vivacious LEGO celebrations of pop culture and Americana. Following his “Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show” at the Vancouver Art Museum, Paul has been sharing out more detailed pics of his architectural series on Mid-century Modern buildings from the Vancouver area. Each model is a faithful recreation, capturing the minimalist design, sleek lines, multiple levels, and seamless blending with the environment associated with the movement. Paul said he was inspired to take this deep dive into Mid-century Modern during the pandemic, a style more modest in scale and perfectly suited for LEGO bricks.
Removing the roofs, you can see that Paul put just as much care into the interiors, with minimalist design and lots of glass to take advantage of all that natural light.
My favorite of Paul’s series might be the Merrick House, built alongside and around towering timbers, with many challenging angles, staggered floors, and even a stained glass window.
Most of the series are built in the traditional micro scale of LEGO’s official Architecture sets, but Paul also includes one minifig scale bungalow.
While not mid-century style, Paul also included in his exhibition a stunning build of Vancouver’s “pink palace” the Villa Maris, a prime example of the Miami Modern movement.
In the artist profile from the exhibition you can see these and other architecture sets and their real-world inspirations, as well as many of Paul’s other sets, many of which were covered on this site in previous years.
It’s been a while since LEGO last paid respects to the most famous midcentury modern architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in its Architecture line, but the spirit lives on (albeit with more color!) in Andrea’s Modern Mansion.