- Bet your kid couldn't do this.
By day, Arthur Gugick teaches math to Cleveland's children. By night, he constructs elaborate and praise-worthy LEGO structures. It's unknown what his wife does at night while he's playing with toys.
Gugick is a bit of a hero among the Lego crowd. At the largest national Lego convention, Brick World, Gugick was a star among stars. The Washington Post detailed his Lego fame in a piece about the men and women who are obsessed with all things Lego:
"It's not coming out of the closet, it's more like coming out of the basement," Arthur Gugick, 50, confessed to me this weekend in Chantilly, as he stood before the elaborate, plastic manifestation of a lifelong obsession he hid for many years — his Legos.Gugick is a rock star in this world of middle-aged man-children who are embracing and celebrating their boyhood love of the iconic little brick.
Before him was a display of some of the world's most amazing landmarks, from Cambodia's Angkor Wat to England's Big Ben, recreated by Gugick in painstaking detail with Lego bricks. The math teacher from Cleveland has custom-built platforms to transport the structures in a van bought specifically for his Lego expeditions. (He and his wife have agreements hammered out — he gets a $50 a week allowance and Lego conventions, she gets a two-week ski trip in the winter.)
He told me about the calculus used to create the Roman Coliseum and the algebra that went into the leaning tower of Pisa.
For the record, it appears his wife is planning vacations at night while he's building, so that's good to know.
Also, Gugick is an AFOL: Adult fan of Legos. They have terminology and everything. Weirdly fascinating and worth the read. If you'd like to look at Gugick's creations, you can do so here.
(Via Crain's Cleveland.)
