The real Empire State Building is 91 years old this spring. My original Empire State Building LEGO model has reached age 20. It has had a few minor cosmetic upgrades during its lifetime - most notably an exterior color change, switching from light grey to tan around 2004 or 2005. However the basic massing has remained unchanged and the design feels dated.

With new elements added to the LEGO angle bracket library over the years and the 2019 introduction of a large Empire State Building LEGO Architecture set, I decided it was time to start from scratch and build an all new model to honor that twentieth anniversary.

This is the result.

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I could do the usual, and wax poetic about the history of the building and all of its details, features, and statistics, but I won't.

The Empire State Building is the most famous skyscraper in the world and there is plenty of online information available.

And besides, this isn't my first rodeo with this landmark.

For those hungry for more details, I can recommend the following book: Wilis, Carol. Building The Empire State W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

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As with all my skyscrapers, the overall scale remains at about 1/650th and the main styling approach still relies on those tile grilles. However there is a much tighter representation of those vertical columns of windows, the overall massing has been made more accurate, and the four story base is completely reimagined.

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A side by side comparison of the 2022 version (left) and the original 2002 version (right). A higher level of detailing and less chunky setback proportioning is evident.

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The view looking down. Recent renovations to the actual building have added green, living rooftops to some of the lower setbacks. For this model, I have chosen an older look as I felt an introduction of green might be too visually distracting.

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