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LEGO Workshop Builds Family Unity in Clinton

More than 60 children, parents, and grandparents gathered at Jared Eliot Middle School on Nov. 14, to recreate Washington, D.C.—from the neoclassical Lincoln Memorial and U.S. Supreme Court Building to the six-story steel and limestone Department of Labor headquarters—one plastic brick at a time.

The two-hour event was part of Building Blocks Workshops, a large-group model building experience that brings families together to communicate and create.

“We have 70,000 LEGO pieces here, and only one rule,” said workshop founder Stephen Schwartz. “No cell phones, no electronic devices, just two hours to actually work together as a family.”

Participants were shown photographs of architecturally significant buildings in our nation’s capital, including civic buildings, monuments, and historic structures, and each family was given a choice of which iconic building to recreate. They were then handed a diagram showing a footprint of the building and 14-gallon clear plastic tote containing thousands of LEGO bricks in almost every conceivable shape and color.

“Sometimes we have people ask, ‘Why don’t you just give us the right LEGOs for our building instead of having us sort through and find them?’” said Schwartz.

Digging around for the pieces that work—“making those important decisions on color, pattern, size, and shape,” he explained—is what makes the experience fun.

Schwartz, an architect licensed in 10 states, including Connecticut, believes it’s critical for youth and adults to unplug and connect with each other.

“When you look around,” he said, “you’ll see that the parents get totally absorbed in the project, not just the kids.”

One of the adults—a grandfather assembling the monolithic Frances Perkins Building with his grandson—spent nearly an hour lying on the floor, carefully sorting through a collection of ivory-colored bricks.

“It’s exciting,” said Nancy Darr, who put together arguably the most ornate building in the Federal Triangle—the National Archives—with her two sons, Anderson, 10, and Hayden, 6. “They had no problem diving into the bin,” she said, “looking for the right-colored pieces.”

While the majority of workshop attendees were fathers and sons, no shortage of moms—and a number of teen and ’tween girls—were busy reconstructing D.C. as well.

“I’m a master LEGO builder,” said Rebecca Kravitz, 10.

A student at Old Saybrook Middle School, Rebecca boasts an entire collection of Hobbit LEGO sets at home. She and her grandfather, Clinton resident Alan Kravitz, spent the evening assembling the façade and wings of the National Gallery of Art, which joined the rest of the capital city’s architectural gems on a huge floor map of Washington, D.C., rolled out in the school’s cafeteria.

“There aren’t as many girls and women as there are males involved in building and architecture,” said Kravitz, a member of the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission. “Rebecca’s into it, so I want to encourage her. It’s really important.”

Approximately 25 families took part in the workshop, which ran from 4 to 6 p.m.

Andrea Kaye, program coordinator for Clinton Youth & Family Service Bureau, helped plan the event.

“It’s a great thing,” she said. “It gives families something positive to focus on and do together.”