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Wednesday, November 15, 2000
By Bob Podurgiel
Jason Burik has created his own field of
dreams - an exact replica of PNC Park, which he constructed out of
3,600 Lego blocks. His model is so exact, he has even included
ads for local companies on his model scoreboard and if you were a
fan 1/400th of your actual size, you could fit into seats that are
painted the exact shade of blue that will be used in the new
ballpark.
The Robinson resident said it took him 160 hours to construct his
replica of PNC Park, and he built it to a scale of 1-to-400, so that
one foot in his model is equivalent to 400 feet in the
ballpark. "It was a real challenge to build this model
because of the many arches and rotunda that were part of the
ballpark's design," Burik said.
He said he was able to create the arches and curved surfaces in the
new ballpark by slightly changing the angle of each block as he
placed it in the model.
Another problem complicating his effort was the fact that he didn't
have a finished structure to copy since the park is still under
construction. He said he solved the problem by using pictures
from the Pirates Web site of what the completed ballpark would look
like. He also went to the construction site on the North Side
and snapped his own photographs.
Burik goes to great lengths to get his Lego models exactly
right. He said he even knocked on the door of the HOK Sports
trailer at the construction site of PNC Park - HOK is the company
that designed the park - and asked them what color they were using
for the seats.
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