What do you get when you give a Catholic Priest who graduated from the University of Notre Dame 300,000 LEGO bricks and three years?
Picture from nd.edu
In 2019, Fr. Bob Simon, currently from Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, was challenged to build the University of Notre Dame’s main domed building. If you’re like me and have never been to the campus, the main building looks like this…
Photo from nd.edu
The build is not all LEGO System bricks. It uses a large amount of Duplo on the inside as support and substructure which many MOC builders use to keep their designs together. Also, hard core LEGO purists should be warned that he did 3D print a piece and he did some gold leafing for the dome itself so the build is not 100% LEGO, but it’s close enough in my opinion.
Photo from nd.edu
Throughout the build, there are a number of minifigures to tell the campus story. A few have custom Notre Dame attire on and they are placed to bring some life to the campus.
If you want to read more or see more detailed pictures you can check out the main Notre Dame site here. Also, they put together a page with some more detailed pictures here. The build made it online a few other places as well, but I didn’t want to list each location.
The LEGO Fan Media captures a lot of what goes on in the fan world, but I haven’t seen this one spot lighted yet so check it out.
Happy building!