Lego Challenge #17: Movie Theatre Facade

Researching historic Movie Theatres

I love how older theatres and concert halls have intricate facades which often incorporate the name of the theatre in bold lettering, and a “now playing” display. I wanted to recreate this with a lot of detail by focusing just on the entrance of a building rather than building a whole structure. This will allow me to build a larger and more intricate facade without running out of bricks.

Examples of Art Deco Theaters from Waynecam PBase collection.

I found a bunch of great collections of photos online:

• Art Deco Theatre facades from around the US.
• Another excellent collection of historic movie theatres
• A great photo of the Campus Theater, the only movie theater in Lewisburg, PA, the town where I went to college.

My project

I started by building the top of the facade, inspired by a couple different Art Deco movie theatres, including the “Pix” theater in the photo above. I wanted to make a bold sign which stuck-out from the facade, and I found a clever way to attach it sideways.

My Art Deco movie theatre facade

After that, I built my way downward, breaking the upper facade several times before reinforcing it further. (half-stud offsets aren’t very strong without significant reinforcing.) Next came the v-shaped “now showing” signage, which involved careful use of hinges and a lot of studs not on top (SNOT) building technique. Lastly, I knew I wanted curves on either side of the front doors, so the bottom came together quickly.

Conclusion

Very happy with the build, it is one of the best looking models I’ve built in a while. It definitely helps to think through some of the details of a model before you start building.

Note: I updated this post later in the day with much better photos. The original photos were taken in the middle of the night.

build time: 1.5 hours.