Brick by Brick: Lego Memorial Chapel was labor of love for Jimenez '25

The kid inside those who love Culver Academies would likely agree that many of the campus' iconic and beautiful buildings ought to be made into official Lego sets (and they may wonder what's taken the company so long). While that may not be in the works, in the meantime Diego Jimenez '25 NB’22 W’19 has done his part. 

 Starting with a project that began back in his freshman year, Jimenez brought Culver's Memorial Chapel to Lego "life," complete with official-looking instructions and box. Not only that, but he also made five sets in all, with one of those garnering plenty of attention (and silent auction bids) at this year's Live the Legacy Parents Auction. 

 Jimenez says he hadn't thought much about the uber-popular building blocks since he was probably eight years old, though the chapel project was, as he puts it, "A nice flashback."

 He encountered Legos again when everyone in the Foundations of Engineering class during his first year at Culver was tasked with designing (via software) and creating (in "hard copy," so to speak) a building with a 1,200-piece limit. 

 Jimenez says he chose the chapel for his project due to an affinity for the building beginning when he was a 10-year-old Woodcrafter. 

 "We would go to Mass every Sunday, and they used to play the organ then. I remember it being a really peaceful, nice building. Every 15 minutes it sounds the bells — it's pretty iconic, reminding me that it's always there."

Starting from the tip of the steeple (its cross is actually a Lego ski pole flipped over, says Jimenez), he worked his way down the chapel structure in Lego in some cases — such as with the stained-glass windows — having to assemble unique combinations from smaller pieces to attain the desired effect.

Jimenez also had to inventory every piece by its Lego number. In his case that meant 800 unique pieces, with 1,356 total pieces used in his engineering class. That number grew to over 1,600 pieces for each of the final versions of the chapel. 

 Refining the original design wasn't part of Jimenez's plan from the start. Instead, the software he'd used to make his original design stopped working, so re-creating the building with new software prompted him to optimize his chapel, including a higher piece count. That was his sophomore year.

There had been talk of a building being offered in Culver's bi-annual auction, and Jimenez pitched the idea of the chapel to Julie Crews Barger, director of parent relations at Culver. With some interested donors becoming involved and five chapels total requested, Jimenez went into action. He put out requests for Lego pieces at a site called Bricklink, where global providers crowdsource to provide the pieces.  

"I would insert my inventory requests and the site looks for different pieces where they're available and creates carts. I just put five chapels in one inventory, so that's when I got more than 9,000 pieces!"

 Those 9,000-plus "bricks" had to be counted one-by-one to ensure each provider had sent the correct pieces. 

 "I was almost dreaming of Lego pieces, with counting pieces each day," Jimenez recalls with a smile. "There were multiple boxes with pieces in my room (at Culver). I counted for an hour a day for weeks, whenever I had a free block (class period). In May I was recovering from a foot injury, so I did have more time to count."

 In total, Jimenez spent nearly two weeks counting Lego pieces from Germany, China, the Netherlands, Malaysia and other places across the globe. 

 He also used the design software to create the familiar, step-by-step Lego instructions, with the final instruction book containing more than 150 steps. 

 If the Lego chapel was going to the Live the Legacy Auction, it also needed packaging worthy of its quality, so Jimenez set about the task of making an authentic-looking, "Lego-esque" box. With a Canva-based design, he leaned on the expertise of Campus Store Manager Kari Brumback and Scott Johnson ’94 W’89, Culver's director of marketing & communications, who steered Jimenez toward a print company that facilitated a remarkably realistic approximation of a legitimate Lego box. 

 Two donors underwrote the project, and in the end, besides one chapel going to each of the donors, one going to Jimenez, and one sold at the auction, the final chapel was donated to the Culver Academies Museum, where it's on display for all to see.

 Jimenez, however, is keeping busy in a variety of ways at Culver. Besides his studies and athletic endeavors, he volunteers to handle lighting needs for events like the aforementioned auction, Dancevision performances, Culver's Huffington Concert Series and an event conceived during his sophomore year called "Live at the M&A," where student bands and musicians gather to perform. He's also volunteered to help cover Culver events, especially during the summer, as a student videographer. 

All that being said, the custom box Jimenez created for the chapel brands it as part of the "Culver Academies Architecture Series," which raises the question: are there future Lego Culver structures in the works at Jimenez's hands?

"I do want to make more," he says, adding he'd love to make a Woodcraft Cabin available for the many campers who would surely love to build and own one. 

 "It was fun creating it."