mr.city's web life

Site Directory:

My Tower Construction

SHORTCUTS:

Stories

Tower Descriptions & Pictures

Long-Gone Towers

Lego(R) Buildings

PICTURES AND DESCRIPTIONS:

SCANNING: Most of the latest pictures were taken with my Sony DCR-TRV30, or by the old TRV-11. Some of the older pictures were taken by hooking up a Snappy scanner (by Play Inc., now defunct) to a camcorder, or by using the Lego Cam. Older pictures originally taken on film have been scanned using an HP ScanJet 5470c. I usually snap several floors at a time, then put them together and retouch using Adobe Photoshop.

Now, then: The towers are listed in chronological order, starting with most recent. Click on the tiny thumbnail picture to see the larger pictures.


1

As Yet Untitled 12/26/2011 -

This is the first tower to be built in a different place -- at my apartment. With the 10' ceilings and lack of a foyer, I decided use the broad foundation floor style seen on only the lower floors of other buildings throughout all floors of this building, thereby making the tower appear much broader. Presumably it makes the tower more stable, aerodynamic, and perhaps impact-resistant. The bracing above every floor through 19 makes the tower about 7" taller than a typical 22-story design. The 2nd through 19th floors use exactly one-half a set of Jengas.

22 floors, 7' 11"

THE COMPLEX 2nd tower completed 8/16/2004

2

Beige Tower 8/16/2004 - 11/26/2004

After I received two more packs of Jengas, I felt the need to build another tower. I decided to build this tower next to Bona Fortuna in order to save it for a tower party, and with that, have made the first Jenga complex!

This tower received a blow on 10/23 while I was away at a band contest. Based on the rubble pattern, it is supposed that it was impacted from the front, and it bounced off the wall. Most fell forward, some fell behind Bona Fortuna, and it is suspected that some of it fell onto Bona Fortuna due to the extensive damage on its lobby floors and the fact that its three top floors (32-35) are missing. The bottom of this tower still leaned up precariously against the wall until an unsuccessful repair attempt on 11/26.

The tower was rebuilt on 12/4/04 in a form invented by Andy Edwards, but it too was subject to some unknown force and was later destroyed. In early January 2005, all the extra blocks were incorporated into decorating the lobby of The Phoenix.

13 floors

3

Bona Fortuna 10/5/2003-10/19/2003 - 11/7/2004
The Phoenix 11/7-8/2004 - 5/?/2007

Also built in foyer. It was difficult to be able to add 5 more floors (including 3 more "lobby" floors) on just 54 more blocks than previously used. This is the tallest tower ever constructed by me. Also unlike the previous tower, it was completed in only two weeks, with most of the work occurring on the first day and none at all toward the ends of the 2 weeks.

9.5 floors were built on the last day of construction in a pattern referred to as "Sunday Blitz." I also broke the storm door frame in an effort to protect it from the wind as I removed the 12-foot-tall ladder from the house. The tower was measured by tape to be 10 feet, 10 inches tall.

Foil was added around the top of the fence in order to keep the cats away from both items.

After the Beige Tower Incident, this tower was re-christened as "The Phoenix" because, from the rubble of Beige Tower, five floors were added to the top, and the remaining blocks were added to the bottom.

At some point in May 2007, the Phoenix finally fell down as a result of my mom's boyfriend crashing into it with something. Based on his account, the tower fell swiftly and pieces were scattered everywhere. The tower had been through a whole lot of incidents, which you can read about in the Stories section, but this one finally did it in.

Bona Fortuna (pictured far left) - 35 floors
The Phoenix (pictured near left) - 40 floors, 13' 0"

WMV file. Shot from a Sony DCR-TRV11 from front of tower's right side. 3.2MB: 45 sec.

4

Domineer II 11/3/2001 - 5/23/2003

Built in foyer. Similar design to Domineer I--only the support system changed. This was the tallest tower at its time ever constructed by me. It holds 3 of the top 5 height records due to the number of attempts. The first 10 floors of this building were not destroyed in the failure of the first 3 attempts, and thus are the original...

  • Try 1 got to 25 floors. (11/3/2001 - no pics taken)
  • Try 2 had 28 completed floors (started on 29) and set a new height record. (11/4/2001 - 12/24/2001: pics & video taken, may or may not be posted)
  • Try 3 had 23 floors before it was deemed unstable. (12/24/2001 - 12/25/2001)
  • Try 4 IS COMPLETE! Click on the link on the beginning of this listing to see it. (3/14-4/10/2002 - 5/23/2003)

30 floors

5

Domineer I 9/15/2001 - 9/16/2001

Built in family room. Lasted 1 night. Followed tower plans, got to 21, and crashed... 21 floors

6

Floor Tower 3/24/01 3/24/2001

Tallest tower built on carpet. Built the night after the demolition of Tall Man.... 16 floors

RealMedia file. Shot from the LegoCam, right up the front of the tower. 598KB: 2 min: 20 sec.

7

Tall Man 2/19/2000 - 3/24/2001

Tallest tower built upstairs, and second-longest-lasting tower. Lasted for over a year until I invited some friends to come help destroy it... 24 floors

8

Big Shoulders 1/15-1/16/2000 - 2/19/2000

The bottom is wide, and kind of resembles big shoulders. Demolished to make way for Tall Man... 19 floors

9

Tower 2000 12/18/1999 - 1/2-1/15/2000

Built especially for the new millennium. Has a cool-looking "stick-out" section which sort of resembles the famous new-year's ball in Times Square. Tallest 5-style I have ever built... 5-style, 34 floors

10

The Mountain 11/20/1999 - 11/27/1999

Modified R-Tower... Accidentally demolished while installing my modem (heck, I finally got it to work :) Incidentally, I no longer use it; got DSL. :)

22 floors, 7' 1.5"

11

R-Tower 11/14?/1999 - 11/20/1999

Named after my aunt Ruth who was visiting... 19 floors

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Last updated 6/17/2005