LEGO team retires with Gurnee Days

Dave Xandegar and his son John Xandegar,12, have built their relationship brick by LEGO brick over the last five years.

During that time, their popularity as LEGO artists in their briXwerX studio exploded and the public demanded more of what they do best: modeling public buildings with the instantly recognizable toy bricks.

On the five-year anniversary from going public, the miniature makers from Lindenhurst will unveil their final creation: Gurnee’s Village Hall.

The LEGO Village Hall will be unveiled at 1 p.m. on Aug. 10 during Gurnee Days weekend at Village Hall, 325 N. O’Plaine Road. They’ll have an eight-foot table with other creations on display.

They also will walk in the Gurnee Days Parade at noon Aug. 11 on Old Grand Avenue, handing out loose LEGOs.

“We’re announcing our retirement. It’s become a full-time job. John was 7 years old when we started and we want to go camping and do other activities together,” Dave said.

The Village Hall is not the first Gurnee building they’ve replicated. In mid-2011, they started working on a model of Warren-Newport Public Library, which was unveiled March 2012.

“While we were doing [a LEGO version of] Warren-Newport Public Library, we were approached by Erik Jensen from the Village of Gurnee,” Dave said.

Jensen, a Gurnee public information officer, said, “The village is always looking for ways to engage residents and teach them about the services we provide. This model, which was truly built by the community with their own donations, will hopefully attract residents of all ages to village hall and encourage them to learn more about the village and its services for years to come.”

At the time, the library was undergoing renovations, so they modeled it off the blueprints and consulted architects on changes as the actual building was worked on.

“The [library] model is four feet by four feet and costs $8,000 in materials. You can’t ask the library to shell that out. How it usually works is the community donates all the LEGOs. We build it and the library gets a model with no money changing hands,” Dave said.

“We had a funny relationship because we were sort of racing to see who would finish the building first,” said Dave, who works as a carpenter. “It got too huge for us. We donated one of our pieces to NASA in Huntsville.”

He and John never knew they’d be famous for LEGO creations.

“We did one of Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut. They really liked it.” John said.

Their first project was to build a Wall-E, the lovable mute robot from the Disney movie.

“We were a dad and a little boy playing with LEGOs on the floor. We had no idea of the LEGO subculture,” Dave said. “We had it online for a week and we had admirers from four continents.”

The first community building they replicated was the Glen Art Theatre in Glen Ellyn, Ill., The replica has been on display for five years.

They also helped with a mural at Glen Bar North, combining 2D artwork with 3D LEGO items standing off the wall.

John said his dad used to bug him sometimes to go build in their LEGO room. His favorite LEGO sculptures among the more than 400 they’ve created are the Buzz Aldrin and Area 19, “a special base where people created spiderwalkers.”

John enjoys designing and creating pixel art and would like to spend more time on that, he said.

“I’m a little sad [about retiring] but I want to do other things,” John said.

During their career, briXwerX has worked with 30 different Chicagoland libraries.

“LEGO is powerful; it’s a great draw for kids. Why not use that to get kids interested in reading and science? Libraries have told us that their relationship with kids changed once LEGO entered the scene and that kids are more vibrant and engaged.” Dave said.

The Xandegars might help buildi the models for the LEGO store that will open this fall in Gurnee Mills.

“Because of our standing, LEGO approaches us and other LEGO artists to help build the models for their stores.” Dave said.

The two have helped build models for the LEGO store in Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wis. “It’s been a great ride, but it’s gotten to the point where everything in our lives that isn’t work is LEGOs,” Dave said.