This summer the National Building Museum invites visitors to Brick City, a celebration of famous buildings and cultural attractions from around the world, carefully recreated by U.K.-based artist Warren Elsmore from LEGO® bricks.
Tour the world and discover architectural highlights across all seven continents. Explore lively streetscapes from Cartagena, Colombia, Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, intricate temples from India to Mexico, tall skyscrapers from New York to Mecca, and imaginative castles from medieval Japan to modern Las Vegas.
The exhibition offers visitors a chance to discover new buildings as well as some more recognizable icons. Spot surprising common ground between buildings thousands of years and miles apart, such as the Roman Colosseum and the 2012 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. The magnificent centerpiece of the exhibition is London’s St. Pancras Station, measuring 12 feet long and built from more than 180,000 standard LEGO® bricks.
After visitors complete their world tour and make their way to the interactive area of the exhibition, they’ll discover two tables with a map of DC divided in half and a “graffiti wall.” Here builders young and old are prompted to channel their creativity and build places of their own. Visitors are also encouraged to share what they build on social media using #BrickCityNBM.
Special Brick City Programming:
Every Thursday, from 10:30 to 11: 30 a.m., explore books and the built world! This FREE program for children aged 6 and younger is packed full of reading, songs and activities designed to promote language and literacy skills.
Saturday, July 8, from 1 to 3 p.m., explore interactive, hands-on activities inspired by Brick City. Through facilitated, hands-on individual and group building challenges, children ages 8-12 will use LEGO® brick challenge kits and real-
life materials to explore how engineering and technology are helping to shape and construct the world around us. In addition to these building challenges, participants will have the opportunity to bring their ideas to life virtually using Autodesk’s Future Communities technology.
Assist artist Warren Elsmore in the construction of a 6-foot-tall LEGO® brick that will be on display in Brick City! The gigantic brick requires 610lbs of LEGO® bricks and lots of helping hands, so join us on Saturday, July 29 or Sunday, July 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The National Building Museum is open Thursday through Monday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Brick City will be on view through spring of 2025. The cost of admission is $10 for adults and $7 for youth (3-17). The Museum is proud to offer complimentary admissions through Museums for All and Blue Star Museums.
Learn more about Brick City and Brick City programming at nbm.org.
