EAST HARLEM (WABC) — One man’s hobby, therapy and enjoyment has now become a massive work of art, and it’s almost too big for the largest exhibit room at the Museum of the City of New York.
Joe Macken is a truck driver from Upstate, New York and his second job is driving a limo.
He has never taken an art class but enjoys architecture and structural engineering.
In 2004, he decided to build 30 Rock in miniature form. Then he moved onto Midtown and just kept going.
Now 21 years and 700,000 little houses later, he has completed all five boroughs and a smidge of neighboring suburbs, bridges and boats to scale in a massive wooden handmade replica.
The model spans 50 by 27 feet and includes landmarks with remarkable precision, character and imagination.
“Every single bit of it is accurate. If you want to look for your home, your park. It’s all there down to the, you know, down to the house. Joe grew up in Middle Village, Queens,” Elisabeth Sherman, chief curator at the Museum of the City of NY, said.
Macken used humble ingredients to create this massive opus, including balsa wood, cardboard, glue and acrylic paint.
He worked in small strips. Once one section was finished, he began another.
Between his two jobs and being a husband and father, Macken worked either late at night or early in the morning, whenever he could carve out a quiet moment.
He might not call himself an artist, but he did take some artistic license.
In homage to the Twin Towers, he included them with the Freedom Tower.
“We really also hope that people are inspired to do something themselves. Be creative. Take on something hard. Be inspired by the fact that Joe started with one building and made the entire city,” Sherman said.
Binoculars are helpful for finding a specific building or street.
If you think this is impressive, and it is, he’s not finished.
Macken is now building out Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York opens to the public on February 12th and runs until September.
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