EVERETT, Wash. — Some of Seattle’s most iconic architecture is being replicated in LEGO bricks by a Mukilteo dad.
Shane Deegan is a free-builder - no blueprints, just imagination – and over the past few years, he’s recreated everything from a Washington State ferry to Husky Stadium.
"It's like building a 3-dimensional puzzle as you're solving it,” he said. "Husky football is my biggest passion, always has been. I've been a fan since I was a little kid."
The stadium took more than four months to build and contains a number of small and incredible details.
"There’s Rome Odunze making the catch in the east end zone, on the scoreboard. I've got the Husky equipment truck at super micro-scale,” he said. "We've got the Dawg on the outside welcoming students. We've got the Don James statue."
There’s also an Easter egg for real University of Washington fans: an exterior wall opens to reveal a urinal with a rubber duck inside.
Deegan is pretty proud of that. And it's just one part of his LEGO Pacific Northwest.
"I always do the places I'm super passionate about,” he said.
Other models include Pike Place Market, upstairs and downstairs. He also re-created Dick's Drive-In, and the burger chain was so dazzled, they launched an entire holiday campaign encouraging other fans to build their own models.
"T-Mobile Park was something I built because it was like, 'Can I do this?'" he said. "'Can I make the roof move? How does this all work together?' I did it. It was heavy. It was hard. Took me months and months but we got it done."
He built a Seattle skyline from Lumen Field to lower Queen Anne - and if you look closely, there's a teeny monorail.
"Being able to build those towers and those skyscrapers at a three or four inch scale, it's pretty awesome to see the whole skyline layout,” he said.
Deegan’s work is also displayed as part of a global skyline exhibition at MOHAI in South Lake Union. (He constructed a mini-MOHAI, which contains a mini-skyline exhibition.)
But unlike the landmarks that inspire him, Deegan's projects are not built to last.
“I tear them apart because they become play. They're meant to be played with forever,” he said.
His bricks come from a collection he shares with his daughter Dottie. His childhood interest in LEGO building was re-ignited after he became a father.
"It's awesome. It gives us an opportunity to play side by side, and we play so differently, and we see things so differently, but we can share that connection,” he said. "There's infinite possibility."
Deegan’s Husky Stadium model is on display at the brand new Bricks and Minifigs in South Everett, located at 1203 SE Everett Mall Way.
His mini MOHAI is on display at the Museum of History and Industry through September 22.
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