Brick by brick: How a RI Lego artist honors the state's iconic architecture

PROVIDENCE – Even as a kid growing up in Cranston and playing with Legos, Andrew Grover was charmed by older city buildings – the ones that had character and soul.

He couldn't understand why people would rave about the latest suburban subdivision or strip mall.

Decades later, Grover, now 44 and living in Providence, is using that childhood Lego hobby to commemorate historic Rhode Island buildings and structures, especially those vulnerable to the wrecking ball or victimized by neglect.

With ancestors dating back hundreds of years in Rhode Island, Grover holds a tremendous affinity for the Ocean State, the people who built it and those who have lived and learned in its houses, schools, libraries.

"I like those things that have stories and soul," Grover says. He's especially fond of old public buildings like schools and libraries. "We used to build them as statements of our values, and we don't do that now," he says.

"We have very intense connections to these structures," Grover says. "We built them, and we made our stories there, too."

He acknowledges it's a quirky way to honor the state's rich history and architecture, but his work has been commissioned by some big players looking to pay homage to venerable structures.

Where you can find his work

Grover has built Lego replicas of the Providence Public Library, Providence's historic Union Station Building, which is now home to the Rhode Island Foundation, and the Slater Mill at the Slater Mill National Historic Landmark in Pawtucket.

Each of the replicas is on display in its parent building. Grover's reproduction of the Union Station Building "sits prominently" in the Rhode Island Foundation's lobby, where almost every visitor stops for a look and is mesmerized by Grover's reproduction of the "century-old landmark in amazing detail," says former Mayor and later U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, now president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

"Andrew works at the intersection of art, historic preservation and the fun of seeing a well-known landmark in such detail," Cicilline says.

This month, Grover began offering for sale Lego kits of iconic Rhode Island structures, including a mill building, which are "some the most distinctive buildings in the Northeast"; Pawtucket City Hall, "one of the art deco masterpieces" of New England, and the infamous Washington Bridge.

Can you build the Washington Bridge in Legos?

"Oh vey, the Washington Bridge," Grover writes on his website, Rhode Island Lego Artist. "Can you build it faster than the actual bridge?"

The kits range in price from $30 to $120. With most kits, Grover will donate proceeds from a portion of the sales to nonprofit organizations for efforts such as historic preservation, land preservation and the arts.

How did Grover start building Lego replicas?

A former public-school teacher, Grover is now an adjunct professor at the New England Institute of Technology, teaching physics and chemistry. He's also an avid hiker who spends a lot of his spare time reveling in Rhode Island's natural beauty, occasionally rediscovering pieces of Rhode Island history that have been reclaimed by the woods, like a Colonial-era cemetery in Cranston.

He rediscovered his Lego hobby about eight years ago, when Warwick decided to close two older schools – Samuel Gorton and Nelson Aldrich junior high schools. Then living in Warwick, Grover followed the issue closely, and while Gorton would eventually be repurposed for administrative offices, Grover was disappointed by the decision.

Working through his emotions, Grover had a "Eureka!" moment while waiting for the Novocain to kick in at the dentist's office – he would build replicas out of Legos.

"I liked both buildings, and long had strong empathetic feelings for beautiful, neglected buildings tossed aside by a society that had become so 'throw-away,' " Grover says on his website.

He withdrew several hundred dollars from savings to buy enough Legos to build the Aldrich school. At his then-husband's suggestion, Grover later applied and received a grant from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts to buy Legos for the Gorton project.

Since then, Grover, as part historian, part artist and part storyteller, has built some 50 Lego models, with many thousands of pieces. Still, he grades himself only as a "B+" Lego artist and says, "There are a lot of people out there who are better than me."

Which replica is his favorite?

A favorite of Grover's is Providence's Mount Pleasant High School.

The Providence Preservation Society describes the school, built in 1938, as "a monumental four-story red-brick-and-limestone building in the Collegiate Gothic mode so popular for educational institutions across the country but relatively scarce in Providence."

Grover says, "Thousands and thousands of Rhode Islanders have a connection to Mount Pleasant." His own connection includes a relative who laid bricks for the school and a grandmother who was in one of its first classes.

Grover's biggest project to date is the Providence Public Library, which took "months" to complete and includes more than 10,000 tiny bricks.

Lisbon, Dublin and Providence

With its inspiring old architecture, Grover likens Providence to great European cities Lisbon and Dublin.

"Providence is my Dublin," he says. "I want it to be treated with reverence."

It's not always the biggest or most well-known buildings that stand out to Grover – he hasn't done the "Superman Building" or any Newport mansions. He says people don't have trouble recognizing beautiful buildings on Federal Hill, but they often overlook admirable architecture in other, more beaten-down parts of the city.

As he walks a city street, he says, "a random house in Providence will speak to me." He often replicates houses and has produced commissioned work for homeowners. Three of his six custom kits are modeled after the mansard-style houses common in Providence.

He hopes his work will help others appreciate some of the city's overlooked but beautiful buildings.

"I'm inviting people to look at these structures a little differently," Grover says. "Let's not forget them."

Like so many other places, he believes Providence lost some of its history and character to redevelopment, but he still sees beauty in much of the city's architecture.

"We were at our best when we were a city of these wooden triple-deckers, before we tore them down and turned them into parking lots," he says.

"We messed up," Grover says, "but some of it's still there."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island Lego artist makes replicas of iconic buildings