Wednesday 21 October 2015

The Butterdome... in LEGO Form

The U of A Butterdome in LEGO form

Ever walk past that giant yellow rounded off structure off 114th street and hang your jaw in sheer awe of its grandeur? Ah – the Butterdome. Or officially: the Universiade Pavilion. Shaped like an impractical butter dish, and colored a hue of butter, the Butterdome, which as a point of reference, stands next to a structure shaped like giant shiny ice cream cone, served as host of the 1983 Summer World University Games.

But why the yellow?

Actually, the color of the panels was a mistake. They ordered forest green, but were happy to take the bright yellow instead. My guess is it was a pre-emptive move to avoid the nick-name: pixel shaped bush building, or even, strangely shaped fake forest building.

In honour of this wildly celebrated anomaly in modern architecture, 5 very small LEGO models of the Butterdome were made. I borrowed one, and in an attempt to recreate the magic of 1983, built the Butterdome on my desk.

Ta da!



This is how it compares in size to the real thing:

The REAL Butterdome and the LEGO Butterdome


This is it next to a banana:

The LEGO Butterdome and a banana


And this is it inside a trophy (just to show off the scale of it):

The Butterdome in a Trophy


SHADI - YouAlberta Contributor


Shadi, a soon to be graduate of the Specialization in Mathematics and Economics program, is a fond admirer of the Spring and Summer, Bluetooth speakers, and ItDog. Shadi is plans on eventually doing graduate work in the incredibly cool field of  Econometrics. In his free time, Shadi enjoys his bike not breaking, and people not yelling at him to stay off the road.

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1 comment

  1. Nice post, not least because "this wildly celebrated anomaly in modern architecture" is a fine turn of phrase indeed to describe our beloved Butterdome.

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