If Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral, India’s Taj Mahal, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge can be built from a set of Legos, why not Princeton’s own landmark?
Why not indeed, says Matt Smith, a Lego enthusiast and communications professional who has designed a Lego version of Princeton University’s Nassau Hall. The prototype set can be seen on the Lego website, where it will be under consideration for retail production if it receives at least 10,000 votes from supporters.
Smith, originally from Tennessee, is now based in New Jersey and was inspired to pursue a Princeton-themed Lego set after having worked as a photographer for the university. It’s not his first Lego design: He also created a replica of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood set that amassed the required 10,000 votes in just 38 days.
The long-time Lego fan returned to the hobby during the COVID pandemic. “I was an original Lego Star Wars fan when the line launched in 1999, and I owned the first 12 Lego Star Wars sets that were released before moving on to other interests,” he says. “I came back to Lego as a collector during the pandemic. After amassing a reasonable collection of Star Wars minifigures and sets, I started making the Mister Rogers set as a way to bond with my young one, who only liked watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“After Mister Rogers was finished, I had the idea to make a Princeton-themed build because I had been a photographer for the University prior to re-entering the Lego world. If you’re making a Princeton build, what could be more iconic than Nassau Hall, the oldest building on campus and the site of so many important moments in early American history? I set to work recreating the exterior facade, which required a lot of careful attention to detail and intricate building techniques to get the scale and the particularities just right. In the end, I was able to include some really great Easter eggs, including the cannonball dent reputed to have been caused by the artillery under Alexander Hamilton’s command in the 1777 Battle of Princeton, and a detailed recreation of the Faculty Room, including portraits of both George Washington and King George II. I am proud of the little details as well as the overall model.”
“I work in communications now for my day job, but have a lot of varied interests, and am an academic historian by training. I bring that eye for historical detail to my professional work as well as my Lego models,” Smith continues. “The work on the Mister Rogers set carefully tracked the historical development of his television home’s soundstage, his role in the Supreme Court’s decision about racial integration at public swimming pools, and even the origin and design of his kitchen cabinets. Similarly, the Nassau Hall build paid attention to both the historic character of the building as well as its contemporary structure, such as including the disability-accessible elevator door that was added in 2021. The distinctive diagonal tile flooring, benches, the President’s Desk, the University Mace, and even the octagonal cupola are all carefully reproduced.”
To see more about Smith’s design and give your vote of support, visit ideas.lego.com/projects/a0ed6d09-4916-4332-8ce9-440495dc47cf.
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