According to a report on Reuters, one of the world’s most famous steel buildings, the Rockefeller Centre, has been replicated with the children’s toy mechano to create a spectacular scaled down version of the steel building.
Steel buildings are generally typified by the grandiosity but, according to a report on Reuters, a million pieces of stainless steel toy parts have been used to make a faithful recreation of one of New York’s most recognisable steel buildings, the Rockefeller Centre. The construction of the scaled down steel building was the brainchild of American artist, Chris Burden and reached seven storeys in height when it was completed this summer. Steel buildings are a particular feature of New York, with many of its most famous structures, from the Chrysler building to the Empire State building, incorporating the use of steel in their construction and this artistic representation was in honour of that.
Steel Buildings – A Grand Project
The accurate recreation of the Rockefeller Centre in New York with the steel toy mechano was no small feat and the construction on one of the most unusual steel buildings in the world actually began in 2006. According to the report on Reuters, the finished miniature Rockefeller Centre weighed in at an impressive 16,000 pounds (7,250kg) and was over 20 metres in height. Speaking to Reuters about his ode to the steel buildings in New York, the artist behind the piece, Chris Burden, points to the debt owed to mechano creator, A.C Gilbert, and states, “He was inspired by the steel buildings to build this toy system and I used this toy system to build a building. It's a poetic interpretation of 30 Rock; it's not a model of it. It references all the tall steel buildings in Manhattan.”
Steel Buildings – Life Imitating Art
It’s not only in the art world that steel buildings are popular. Steel is used in more and more construction projects throughout the world as it one of the most flexible of materials when it comes to the number of functions that it can perform. Just some of the steel buildings to have hit the headlines recently include the superbly renovated Wembley Stadium, home of the English football team and the T5 terminal at Heathrow which was, without doubt, one of the most ambitious construction projects in the history of steel buildings. There is likely to be a surge in the number of projects that use steel is their core material as its innumerate benefits become apparent.
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