In celebration of La Salle Academy’s centennial anniversary, junior P.J. Notargiacomo constructed an impressive miniature replica of the school out of Lego’s. The detail is exacting, and it required more than 9,000 Lego bricks to build.
P.J. also plays on the football team, and his finished product was unveiled at the school’s football homecoming game on September 27 to the delight of everyone in attendance.
Legos are perhaps the only toy that allows for limitless creativity. By interlocking the various colored plastic bricks pieces, a builder can connect them in any way imaginable to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Denmark, began manufacturing the construction toy in 1949. They were in an instant hit with children, and today Legos are more popular today than ever, with approximately 36 billion bricks being produced each year. Legos are featured in video games, television shows, and feature films.
P.J.’s love for Legos goes back to his early childhood, but he gives credit to his principal, Tim Welsh, for coming up with the idea to duplicate the iconic La Salle building in Lego. Every student dreads being called into the Principal’s office, but when Welsh suggested to P.J. that he build the replica in honor of the school’s 100th anniversary, P.J. set to work immediately.
“I heard P.J. had a real talent for building with Lego, and I remember taking my kids to Lego Land and seeing replicas of Fenway Park and the Empire State Building,” Welsh told Channel 12 News. “I thought, as we’re celebrating the 100th year of La Salle in this iconic building, this could be a great opportunity.”
And it was.
It was also a challenge for the student, who had never done anything on such a massive scale before. Using Lego building software he found online, as well as a copy of the school’s architectural blueprints, P.J. completed the project in eight months.
Few people knew that P.J. was working on this project until he spoke to Channel 12 News just a couple weeks before the official unveiling. The enormous effort was not lost on Welsh, the other school administrators, or the students when it was revealed to the public last month.
Providence’s La Salle Academy is a private Roman Catholic college preparatory school run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. It was founded in 1871, but the main building, the largest and oldest academic building on campus, was dedicated in 1925 when the Academy moved from its location in downtown Providence to the current location in the Elmhurst neighborhood. It houses most of the classroom facilities as well as the library, computer labs, administrative offices, and the college counseling center. The first floor of one wing is devoted to the De La Salle Middle School, grades six, seven, and eight.
This is the building the P.J. replicated in Lego bricks.
The project was constructed in P.J.’s family garage, and after being there for the better part of this year, he is going to miss it. However, he is proud of what he was able to accomplish, and he’s thrilled that so many people will get to enjoy seeing it at its new location at the school for years to come.
It may even inspire others to do something they never thought possible.
After all, that’s what art does, in any medium.
