LEGO Builder Recreates Iconic Poughkeepsie Cast Iron Building

A Dutchess County man took his love for building with LEGO to new levels.

LEGO Builder Turns Love of LEGO into Passion Project

Growing up in Poughquag New York, Jared Oswald was like most kids. He loved playing and building with LEGO. As time went on, Oswald's love for building and engineering grew and blossomed into a unique passion project.

During the 2020 pandemic, Jared found himself back at his parent's house finding all of his old LEGO pieces. From there, Life in Pieces Brick Shop was born and turned into a small online store.

Now, Life in Pieces is a thriving company based out of Poughkeepsie New York with 1,000,000 parts in stock and serving more that 8,000 customers world wide.

Recently, a photo of Jared's work on a particular iconic Poughkeepsie, New York building started making the rounds on social media. So we reached out to him to learn more.

Dutchess County Man Builds Iconic Poughkeepsie Cast Iron Building Out of LEGO

The Poughkeepsie Cast Iron Building sits on Main Street in Poughkeepsie. The building sticks out as the Poughkeepsie Public Library explains it sits at 54 feet high "with a decorative facade made of cast iron" that was produced by New York City's "Ætna Iron Works Company."

Oswald took on a project to recreate the Poughkeepsie Cast Iron building out of LEGOS. When asked what inspired him to take on such a project he tells us that it all started when he worked as a trainee for Tom Cervone and his commercial real estate company, CR Properties, that was located in the Cast Iron Building.

After Oswald transitioned out of real estate he learned that the Poughkeepsie Cast Iron Building was becoming a historic building that year adding "That's what prompted the whole conversation to make it."

After thousands of pieces, we're talking  38,762 LEGO pieces, and over 6 months of work, the Poughkeepsie Cast Iron Building LEGO creation was complete. Jared tells us that Tom Cervone had no idea the piece was being made and was "totally blown away."

The LEGO recreation is on display in the front window of  the actual building on Main Street in Poughkeepsie.

Life in Pieces Creates Unique LEGO Designs

Jared Oswald and his team at Life in Pieces do everything from commissioned pieces to smaller pieces and wall-mounted art too.

You can learn more and submit a form to have a piece commissioned on the website Lifeinpiecebrickshop.com