Sean Kenney (b. 1976) is a professional LEGO artist based in New York City and Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is known for his large-scale sculptures and installations made entirely out of LEGO bricks. He has worked on a variety of projects, including creating sculptures for major corporations, designing installations for museums and galleries, and even publishing books on LEGO art and building techniques.
A remarkable LEGO model of Yale Schwarzman Center by Kenney is currently on exhibition at the Center. The model contains around 88,000 LEGO pieces and took two months of full-time work to design and build at Kenney’s art studio in Amsterdam.
The model was commissioned by Christine Schwarzman in 2021, as a gift for her husband, the building’s namesake, Stephen A. Schwarzman ’69. Kenney began by researching photographs, satellite photos, and construction renderings of the building. He then sketched out a rough massing model to get a better idea of the building's footprint, height, and overall shape. From there, he built a few LEGO prototypes of important sections of the building's façade, such as columns and windows. These prototypes set the overall color scheme and detail level and served as a sample of the model's visual language. Over the weeks and months that followed, Kenney designed and built the model by cross-referencing his prototype with the massing model and online photos.
“It requires a lot of focus and heads-down work,” said Sean. “I build the entire model row-by-row, from bottom to top all in one go, until it's finished!”
Despite never having visited the Schwarzman Center prior to building the sculpture, Kenney believes the model is as faithful to the original as possible, given the scale and limited resolution of LEGO bricks. He used a combination of Google Street View, satellite imagery, and other photos he found online as references. He even looked at interior photos to help him understand the exterior better.
The LEGO model has a dedicated hallway dubbed "LEGO Avenue" at the Center. Kenney was pleasantly surprised to learn that his model was on display at the Schwarzman Center and expressed his delight that everyone passing through the building can enjoy it.
"I'm a big fan of neoclassical architecture, so it was a real treat to build this model, and I'm very happy with how it came out," said Sean. "It was fun to build, and I hope people get as much joy exploring the model as I did building it!"
For more information about Sean Kenney and his LEGO sculptures, visit https://seankenney.com