If you’ve ever wondered what a Lego scale model of Rice University’s campus would look like, you can now visit the Welcome Center to find out.
Andrew Linhart, a senior at Brown College studying mechanical engineering, designed and built a Lego map of Rice’s campus that is now on display in the front of the Rice Welcome Center.
The project comprises over 8,000 pieces, taking hundreds of hours of designing and planning and around 14 hours of total build time on the third floor of Lovett Hall to complete.
Linhart said he couldn’t have done it without a little help from his friends.
“For the build process, we had a big group chat with a bunch of people and I’d post times on an Excel document,” Linhart said. “They would sign up, and there were always people here helping me out.
“It was really cool seeing so many different people from around the campus come together to help me out with this. I can’t express how thankful I am to have everyone’s support for this project.”
Before beginning to build, Linhart created a manual with about 750 pages of instructions from which the project was based around.
“Having the exact amount of pieces I needed to complete the model was quite the task,” he said. “If you misplace one piece, everything can go awry.
“I just love working with people. Building is great, but what really made this special was that it’s not just me sitting in a dark room on my own building this. It’s bringing in so many people to work with that made it really fun.”
Linhart said visiting other colleges and seeing Lego sculptures on campus, along with his interest in map-making, gave him the idea to create the model.
“I love Lego,” he said. “I love designing, and I love Rice, so it was a great fit.”
Linhart expressed his gratitude to Rice’s Office of Admission, Student Association and Office of Public Affairs and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for making the project possible.
He said he hopes it inspires creativity among other students at Rice.
“It feels so amazing to be able to have impacted the university like this,” he said. “You always want to make your mark and try to leave a place better than you found it. And I just feel so fortunate that I’ve been able to do that in creating something I love and am super passionate about.”