Paul Hetherington’s Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show
/Paul Hetherington is a Canadian artist who was born in England, and raised in West Vancouver. He is a collector and a fan of Tiki culture, music, and architecture. Paul loves to travel, and attends many LEGO conventions. He is well-known in the LEGO community as a talented builder who stands out for his building style. Paul is a member of his local LEGO Club, the VLC. His works have been featured in all forms of media including books, magazines, news interviews, blogs, podcasts, and much more.
Paul posing with his Smith House II LEGO model in the famous floating living room of the Arthur Erickson designed Smith House II. photo credit: Melissa Rekve.
Today I get to tell the story of how a simple MOC built by Paul led to an entire show connecting LEGO and the art world, showing that LEGO as an art medium.
The Pink Palace
The idea for Paul Hetherington’s Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show began unexpectedly on a cloudy, cool day in 2021 when he was building for fun in his LEGO workshop. His mind is constantly overflowing with ideas, but he lacks time to turn many of these ideas into reality. When it comes to building with LEGO bricks, he works as a full-time artist. So most of his time is spent working on commissions. This means building for himself from time to time is a real treat!
On this particular day, Paul built a miniature version of the Villa Maris, an iconic pink building located in West Vancouver known around the world by its nickname, the Pink Palace. This building is along the stunning waterfront of West Vancouver. Due to its color, this building is so eye-catching that ships use it for navigation.
This is the model that started it all...it's a miniature version of West Vancouver's iconic pink palace (officially known as the Villa Maris). Built by Paul Hetherington. photo credit: Paul Hetherington.
Paul is a fan of architecture. The city he lives in has many famous homes, including a wide range of what are known as West Coast modern homes. These modernist designs began popping up around Vancouver in the late 1940s. They have a distinctive style, which often includes high ceilings, large bay windows, exposed posts and beams, and a seamless transition from the interior of the home to the exterior garden area. West Coast modern homes are usually modest family homes that are designed to complement the natural setting.
Share The Love
Paul was excited about how his rendition of the Pink Palace turned out. So he took it to show Douglas Coupland. Douglas is a Canadian novelist, visual artist, and designer who is known around the world for his works. He is a fan of Paul’s work.
l-r: Paul Hetherington and Douglas Coupland. Douglas flew to BrickCon Seattle in 2023 for a tour from Paul. Photo courtesy of Paul Hetherington
Love At First Sight
Douglas saw Paul’s LEGO Pink Palace, immediately fell in love with it, and without hesitation claimed, “This is a show!” Suddenly Douglas was on the phone with the curator at the West Vancouver Art Museum, Hilary Letwin. Hilary agreed to meet with Paul and Doug a few days later about a potential exhibition.
L-R: Douglas Coupland, paul hetherington, Hilary Letwin, photo credit Melissa Rekve
Douglas, Hilary, and Paul had a meeting to discuss the Bricktacular West Coast modern show. Paul gave Hilary and Douglas a tour of some of his models on display in his home.
Douglas suggested to Hilary that Paul create an exhibition of select local West Coast modern homes. The purpose of the exhibition was to bring awareness to this slowly disappearing architectural history. It is all too common that when these homes come up on the market and are purchased, they get torn down and replaced by higher-density housing.
The show would highlight the importance of keeping these homes through Paul’s work. Bringing recognition to not only Paul, but also the architects, designers, and homeowners through the medium of LEGO was something everyone could relate to at any age. It was a brilliant idea!
It’s Go Time!
The Bricktacular West Coast Modern Program is available on loan at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. Photo credit: west Vancouver Memorial Library.
The meeting went well, and it was agreed upon that Paul would have his first solo exhibition in 2023 curated by Hilary and Paul. Of course, Doug has a hand in this, too, by creating the idea for the show and by picking out the first two houses for the show, Eppich I and Eppich II, designed by Arthur Erickson, one of Canada’s most well-known architects.
Throughout the entire planning process, Douglas was a confidant to Paul, giving advice and encouraging him as he worked tirelessly to create the show. Douglas even wrote the foreword for Paul’s Bricktacular show program.
Eppich II
The next day after Paul showed Doug the pink palace, before the meeting with Hilary even happened, Doug emailed Paul and sent him pictures of a west coast modern home he thought Paul should recreate in LEGO, The Eppich II house, designed by Arthur Erickson.
Upon seeing the home, Paul instantly saw that this part would perfectly replicate the streamlined curves of the home.
Part name: 1X1X3 1/3, W/ ARCH, Color: white; Element ID: 6185956, Design ID: 30935. Photo credit: LEGO.
Upon seeing the home, Paul instantly saw that the LEGO element ID #6185956/30935; Brick 1X1X3 1/3, w/arch, would perfectly replicate the streamlined curves on the home. Paul was excited about the prospect, so he bought a book about the home, which he used as a reference, and he found past real estate listings online.
It turned out this would be the first house for Paul’s Bricktacular exhibition. It was also the only house Paul built for the show without doing a site visit. Paul spent a month in total working on this first project, a week doing research, and then three weeks to design and build the house. The finished product was perfect and exact. It was stunning!
Eppich I
Once again, when Paul finished the Eppich House II, he took it to Douglas’s house to show him. Both Paul and Douglas were excited with how it turned out. Doug asked Paul if he could borrow the house for an afternoon because he knew the owners of the other Eppich House, Eppich I, and they just had to see it.
Upon showing the homeowners of Eppich I, Doug’s visit quickly turned into a commission for Paul. The homeowners wanted a LEGO version of their house too. Not only did they commission Paul to build their house out of LEGO, but they agreed to lend it to Paul so it could be in the Bricktacular West Coast Modern show for a few months. These delightful homeowners continue to lend the model to Paul for events to help spread the word about West Coast Modern architecture.
Early on it was decided that this show should take place at the West Vancouver Memorial Library instead of the West Vancouver Art Gallery. The difference? Foot traffic, space, and a wider amount and range of viewers. Simply put, libraries get more traffic than art museums generally.
The West Vancouver Memorial Library just so happened to be Paul’s childhood library. So it was a heartwarming experience for him to get to do his first solo exhibition there.
Planning, Planning, More Planning, Building
Paul did a ton of research, site surveys, interviews with homeowners, perusing of the West Vancouver Art Museum archives, meetings, reading, discovering, and choosing, in collaboration with Hilary, which of the many incredible west coast modern West Vancouver homes to build. Choosing which homes to build was not an easy task because there were so many worthy homes to choose from. In total, it took two years of full-time planning before the show came to fruition.
After Eppich II and then Eppich I were built, the plan for the rest of the houses came together. In total, the exhibition featured eight local West Coast modern homes, two fantasy mid-century modern creations designed by Paul, and three two-dimensional panels designed by Paul.
The Bricks And Mortar Of The Show
The eight replicas of homes in the show included Eppich I, Eppich II, Smith House II, Sky Bungalow, Villa Maris, Merrick House, Froome-Rayher House, and the Binning House.
Other featured models in the exhibition included fantasy models Googie and Atomic Ranch. Both models are custom creations from Paul’s imagination, with inspiration coming from his love of Mid-Century Modern style.
Googie. model designed and built by Paul Hetherington.. photo credit: Blaine Campbell.
atomic ranch. model designed and built by Paul Hetherington. photo credit: Blaine Campbell
The three two-dimensional panels were inspired by mosaics and murals from various artists between the 1950’s and 1960’s. Some of these artists included B.C. Binning and Lionel Thomas.
It’s Showtime!
The exhibition included a limited run of show programs for purchase, which included a foreword from Douglas Coupland; (LEGO) Artist, Nathan Sawaya; Curator of the West Vancouver Art Museum, Hilary Letwin; and Director of the West Vancouver Memorial Library, Stephanie Hall.
As you can imagine, these sold out quickly at the library, but Paul does a few of his own copies for sale on his website. These limited edition keepsakes had a print run of only 400 copies.
On May 5, 2023, The Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show debuted at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. With 400 invited guests and the public in attendance at the opening gala, the Library was packed. Everyone wanted to get a peek at these local West Coast modern homes Paul had created using LEGO. There were a lot of impressed faces in the crowd, which included Douglas Coupland, the homeowners, local elected officials, VLC LEGO Club members, family, friends, and the public. A sense of awe could be felt on that magical opening night.
Droves of people came from near and far to see the exhibit that night and throughout the exhibition. The draw was noticeable. The sheer incredibleness of using the medium of LEGO to bring awareness to something as important as historical local architecture is really special.
The West Vancouver Library exhibit took place from May 5th until July 2nd, 2023. The library staff reported a substantial increase during the two months the Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show was on display.
Encore! Encore! Encore!
After the show ended at the library, the replicas of local West Coast modern homes were moved to West Vancouver’s ten-day-long Harmony Arts Festival. Again, the display was very well received, with people coming daily to peruse the models. Some even reported that they came to see the display every day during the festival. Between the Library and the Harmony Arts Festival, the Bricktacular show was seen by thousands of people. But, the momentum did not stop there.
At the Harmony Arts Festival, Paul met Filmmaker Christopher Markowsky. Christopher asked Paul if he could create a documentary about his Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show. Paul didn’t hesitate to say yes, and they immediately got to work. With cinematographer Ryan McLeod filming and Christopher producing it, the documentary turned out great! It was so good, in fact, that it was chosen to be in West Vancouver's Coast Mountain Film Festival. The documentary was called “LEGO Artist Profile with Paul Hetherington and The Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show,” and was one of the featured films which were played at the Kay Meek Center.
Bringing Worlds Together
The Bricktacular West Coast Modern Show and documentary brought awareness about west coast modern homes while connecting LEGO and the art world, showing that LEGO as a medium is art just as much as any other medium is. Something that is often overlooked in the art community.
Paul made many new connections through his Bricktacular West Coast Modern show. These connections opened up new opportunities, some of which included being invited to display some of his LEGO versions of Arthur Erickson homes at the annual Art Vancouver Convention and at an Arthur Erickson Centennial event at Robson Square in Vancouver in July of 2024.
What is your favourite architecture themed LEGO set or MOC? Let us know in the comments.
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