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Interview andarticle byGeoff GrayAt BrickWorld 09, I had a chance to meet with Adam Reed Tucker, Paal Smith-Meyer and Christian Thor Larsen, the people who are pioneering a new line of sets.Paal and Christian both work for the LEGO Group, in a division called the “NewBusiness Group.” Adam is an architect and an avid fan of creating architecturewith LEGO elements. They have already released five sets in a series called “Landmark”,which are all doing very well. Now they are about to release a new line, andthe first set is a model of Fallingwater, a house in Pennsylvania designed and builtby Frank Lloyd Wright.The four of us grabbed a table in the hotel restaurant, in a corner far away from thenormal lunch noise. Using my cell phone for audio (since I did not have a propertape recorder), we ordered lunch and had an informal chat about the model, therelationship between Adam and TLG, and about the New Business Group. Here isthat interview:Geoff: Gentlemen, great to have you here. Let’s start outby getting a little bit on the background of the Architectureseries and the creation of the Fallingwater project.Adam: Hi. I had the opportunity back in 2006 to attend myfirst LEGO fan event, Brickfest, in Washington, DC, where Imet Tormod Askildsen and Paal Smith-Meyer and we got achance to talk about my idea of exploring the world of Architecture,and using the LEGO brick as a medium.Paal: It was quite interesting meeting Adam and seeing avery different contribution and his presentation of Brick-Structures and the thought of bringing Architecture backinto the LEGO portfolio. It wasn’t really until the spring of2007; actually April 2007, when Adam and myself got tosit down to discuss LEGO and architecture, and how wewould do it. I remember saying this wouldonly happen if an architect like Adam makesit happen. There’s no one inside LEGO thatcould authentically make architecture today,so we need to collectively make this effort.That’s where we were at Brickfest, kind of atthe “exploring an idea” stage. We met againat Brickworld 2007, where Adam had madea small event kit of the Sears Tower, and itkind of continued from there. We met again inthe fall and decided “let’s go for it.” That waskind of the lead in to the story for presentingthis idea of architecture to the investmentgroup inside LEGO.Adam: Initially when Paal and I were starting to brainstormall of our ideas, we recognized and identified many differentareas of architecture, and when looking at the Landmarkseries, we felt this series would be more of a “brushing thesurface” for people who are interested but who don’t want totake the experience too far, and so as a souvenir based componentof LEGO Architecture, that satisfied that requirement.Second was taking that experience and enriching it furtherwith the Architecture series, which we decided would startwith Frank Lloyd Wright as the first architect because heis probably the most well known and most famous of USarchitects.Geoff: Was there a discussion amongst all of you to useFallingwater, or was that something that you [Adam] cameup with on your own?Geoff: The end result of this was the releaseof 5 different kits in the “Landmark” series.The latest, the Guggenheim Museum might beseen as a bridge between the Landmark seriesand the new Architecture series. Is that thethought for the museum model?Adam: I think it was seen as a bridge, but ifdid try to categorize it, it really could fall ineither one.Geoff: With the success of the landmark seriesand looking to expand on it, what16brought the idea of this new Architecture series?Adam holds a copy of an early concept model while standing in front of the entrance to the FrankLloyd Wright Foundation