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622 Pieces — That's How Many Legos It Takes To Build An NPR Headquarters Model

Published January 15, 2017 at 6:05 PM EST

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

OK. Here's a story that's a bit of a happy surprise for us. NPR might be a Lego set - this very building, NPR headquarters, a place from which I'm speaking to you right now. Let's back up because it's not on the toy shelves yet. It's just a digital model - a pretty good one, if I may say so myself.

TYLER WILLIAMS: Right now it's 622 pieces.

MARTIN: That's Tyler Williams. He is a Lego super fan.

WILLIAMS: I have loved Legos truly for as long as I can remember.

MARTIN: And he's also an NPR super fan.

WILLIAMS: I've been a avid listener of NPR and public media for my entire adult life.

MARTIN: And if he has his way, he will combine his two loves into an awesome Lego set allowing brick enthusiasts all over the world to build their very own NPR mother ship. It's not such a far-fetched idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANDREW CLARK: Well, when I was a kid, I was into "Dr. Who," and I got hooked on the show. And I was also into Lego - of the idea to have a Lego set that combines those two interests, a great experience, a lot of fun.

MARTIN: That's Andrew Clark who won the Lego Ideas Contest in 2015. Now his "Doctor Who" characters and famous time-traveling phone booth are in stores around the world. For a Lego idea to become an actual Lego toy set is not easy. Here's Tyler Williams, our NPR fan.

WILLIAMS: If you reach 10,000 supporters within the given time parameters, the set that you've designed will go into a review process where a board of Lego employees will actually sit down, and they will pick some of those to become actual Lego products.

MARTIN: Now, we promise we didn't put Tyler up to this. It was his idea. He really wanted to do it.

WILLIAMS: I realized that the new NPR headquarters is - it's a pretty remarkable building. It incorporates an existing old warehouse, so I tried to incorporate that existing structure into the Lego, not just in a visual representation, but also in the way that the Legos work.

MARTIN: If Tyler's design wins the competition, the NPR building would join such architectural icons as the Lego Eiffel Tower, the Lego Louvre or even a Lego Burj Khalifa. Quite an intimidating list, but wouldn't it be awesome to have an NPR Lego headquarters and maybe, you know, a Lego mini figure of Michel Martin to go inside? Just, you know, a thought. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.