Lower Michigan man builds Lego Grand Hotel

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WLUC) - One Ann Arbor man has built a replica of one of Michigan’s most famous landmarks. David Lorch says he initially built a 9-foot-long replica of the Grand Hotel using 25,000 Lego blocks.

However, due to its cumbersome size, Lorch says he decided to create a smaller to-scale version of the historic hotel. Lorch says it took 730 lego pieces to create his micro masterpiece.

Lorch is hoping to win the Lego Ideas Competition before year’s end. If so, Lego could offer an official retail Grand Hotel Lego set.

But Lorch says he needs your help to collect enough the nearly 5,000 votes needed to win.

“We’re at 5,300 supporters right now so there’s a long way to go. But I’m hoping to get the word out so we can have a Michigan-based Lego set possibly. So I’d appreciate as many votes and supporters as I can get on there. I need to hit 10K by mid-November,” Lorch announced.

Click here to visit the Lego Ideas website and cast your vote.

Lorch says you can also vote for other Lego set ideas without negatively impacting his success.

“I would encourage people to go on there and vote for as many sets as they think look cool and inspire them. You click on the big blue support button. You have to sign up for a Lego account. You can do that with email, google, Facebook or Apple ID. Once you create an account, you log back in, click the blue support button again,” Lorch advised.

Lorch says he has no intentions of slowing down. In fact, he continues to build on a long legacy of Lego that goes back to his childhood.

“I’ve built with Lego my whole life. And I even use it for my job sometimes doing prototyping as an engineer. Just about the last decade or so I started trying to make models, a replica of a wooden clock, and more ornate things like flowers. Because that’s a real challenge getting the curvature of flowers correct. I’ve coached Lego robotics teams in the past. So sometimes I try to integrate motors into my stuff,” Lorch asserted.