The Public’s Radio studio is in the Rhode Island Foundation building, a grand brick structure which once served as the train station for Providence. When I walk into the lobby every day, I pass a model of the building, made out of Lego. This model of One Union Station was built by Andy Grover, who grew up in Cranston and loves the old buildings of Rhode Island.
“I’m always marveled by the old Yankee ability to build something that looked very good and sensible, but without being ostentatious,” Andy said. “Somehow they knew how to build something that didn’t look cheap, but didn’t look ostentatious, didn’t look decadent.”
Andy’s attic has several Lego models of historic buildings from around Rhode Island. The first one I noticed was made from red Lego bricks with four soaring chimneys in the corners.
“One of the most beautiful and absolutely a totally unappreciated building,” Andy said. “This is a model of the Asa Messer school, the original one on Messer Street.”
Earlier this year, Andy built a series of buildings that when put together, modeled several blocks in Providence.
“The city commissioned a plan, the North Main Street revitalization corridor plan, and it was about how we could reimagine North Main Street,” he said. “Kind of a ‘North Main Street 2050’ sort of thing. Because well, I don’t think it’s a very controversial opinion to say that it’s unpleasant as it is.”
Andy’s model includes the section of North Main between Olney and Doyle. Instead of the current University Plaza strip mall behind a large parking lot, all of the buildings are right next to the street. This was inspired by the basics of the revitalization plan.
“In so many words you can encapsulate it as ‘make North Main Street look like South Main Street,’” Andy said. “So we have this one that is beautiful, a lot of good preservation, obviously much more pleasurable to walk along, shop along, bike along and then at some point we go up that hill around Olney and then after that it’s… You know everybody says like it’s a hellhole. We knocked down so much beautiful stuff [there’s] so much parking lot.”
Andy buys his bricks in bulk and takes donations from people. He has received several giant tubs of lego from people giving away their children’s old toys.
“‘I got these Legos in my basement. I don’t wanna throw them away. Do you want them?’ And I’ll of course say yes,” Andy said. “There is something special when I can make a school building for a community and I can say you know some of the bricks that are in this came out of your basements.”
Andy’s models are in demand and popular. He’s done several commissions over the last few years including the Providence Public Library, Mount Pleasant High School and the North Main project. I asked him why people seem to like models made from Lego.
“Lego has a particularly powerful attraction to it,” Andy said. “And to me, Lego is almost just incidental. It just happens to be a medium that I can, work with. I’m really just a B plus Lego modeler at best actually.”
I think he’s selling himself short. Almost everyone has played with Lego at some point in their lives, so we all have a sense of how they work, but you’ve probably never built anything like the Lego models that Andy makes. To me, his work is so compelling because he captures the essence of the buildings in a simple and approachable way.
Most of Andy’s models are of public schools, and that’s where he got his start. When the Warwick school district decided to close two buildings, he understood that with a shrinking population, the consolidation was necessary, but he was still disappointed that they chose to close the Aldritch and Gorton Schools.
“Something that never happened in the conversation is, not once did anybody bring up how Aldritch and Gorton were beautiful buildings, you know, that these look like the same sort of buildings that rich people send their children to,” he said. “People know that I’m an opinionated person, I have a lot of thoughts about, you know, urbanism in Providence and the intersection of preservation. It’s a way for me to be able to articulate those thoughts. This is a way for me to be able to influence that conversation. This is my love song to my home. This is my home.”
Andy’s latest project is the original Slater Mill building, and it will even include a working model of the original drivetrain which is no longer at the mill. The model will be on display next Saturday, May 13 as part of the First Strike Festival commemorating the first industrial workers’ strike in the United States. For The Public’s Radio, I’m James Baumgartner.
Check out Andy’s Instagram account for more photos of his Lego models.
