Pittsburgh Magazine    
December, 2001

By Mike May / Photography By Blaine Stiger
 
"Just Imagine" creating a holiday wreath made up of hundreds of tiny plastic building blocks.  We're not pulling your Lego.  Just remember that "Just Imagine" is the slogan for that Denmark-based toy company known for these bitty blocks, fashioned by generations of kids into everything from houses to dinosaurs.  (Company founder Ole Kirk Christiansen conceived the word in 1932, merging two Danish words "LEg GOdt," translated as "play well.")
     
Creating something round out of squares and rectangles was the challenge for Burik, whose wreath graces our December cover.  One Christmas, "When I was 6 or 7," he remembers, Burik received a set of Legos from his grandparents and has been building ever since.
   
Through the years, he honed his skills and hit the major leagues in more ways than one when the Pittsburgh Pirates commissioned a model of PNC Park.  That took 3,600 pieces and 160 hours.  The wreath required 725 pieces and 15 to 20 hours of work, which Burik fashioned in addition to his job as an elementary school teacher.