Lego Re-Creation of Campus Clicks with Comets, Retail Center’s Rising Aspirations

The University Roundabout and the Naveen Jindal School of Management building are two of the most recognizable pieces in "UTD in Brick." Check out more of exhibit and its unveiling by clicking on the video play button.

Kurt Zimmerle ran out of bricks.

Despite bringing binloads of his own bricks, there never seemed to be enough.

When re-creating The University of Texas at Dallas main campus with Lego, color and quantity were key for this creation. And Zimmerle's stash was over 1,000 miles away in Petoskey, Michigan.

"Kurt's studio is like a Home Depot for Lego," said Roldan Grace, Zimmerle's artistic brick partner, also from Petoskey.

With a little help from the internet, overnight shipping and secondhand donations, Zimmerle and Grace brought "UTD in Brick" to life in July. Building on site - instead of a studio - was a feat in itself, and it took 20 days, about 360 hours and over 100,000 Lego bricks to create.

David Matthews, director of the Center for Retail Innovation and Strategy Excellence (RISE) at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, commissioned the brick artists to re-create the central part of campus, complete with a construction crane, magnolia trees and many of the University's core buildings.

The exhibit will be displayed Nov. 27 to Jan. 2, 2027, at Galleria Dallas inside a store featuring brick building stations and a gift shop. All profits will support student travel, competitions and scholarships, Matthews said. Students will be hired to manage the store and get a chance to volunteer.

"This was a wonderful opportunity to partner with the best and busiest shopping center in Dallas," Matthews said at the unveiling of "UTD in Brick" on July 30. "The purpose is to give our students experience in retail. Our students need to serve in retail."

Since Matthews had organized previous brick displays for the holidays at Galleria Dallas, mall staff reached out to see whether he would be interested in revisiting the idea. Matthews tapped Zimmerle, who had re-created downtown Dallas for the Galleria more than a decade ago, and Grace was recruited to help complete the project in such a short time frame.

Working without instructions, the brick artists used Google Maps aerial photos and went around campus capturing images of the buildings with their cellphones.

Zimmerle and Grace started with the Founders Building, the campus's oldest building, which was dedicated in 1964, and re-created the rest of the buildings chronologically. The northernmost buildings - the Erik Jonsson Academic Center and Cecil H. Green Hall - were among the first the artists built, and on the south, the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum was the final one to be completed. Videos captured the artists' progress.

Throughout July, more than 400 faculty, students and staff members visited the executive education classroom where the mini-campus rose from 16 6-foot-long conference tables.

"This is so amazing," said Lisa Foster, assistant director of corporate relations in the Jindal School Career Management Center. "I'm just so impressed they created this."

Marketing senior Dawit Wedajeneh stopped by to see the exhibit on his way home from work.

"They did an amazing job," he said. "It's so detailed. It's crazy to think about what they did in such a short time. I can't wait to see it in the Galleria."

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the Jindal School and Caruth Chair of Management, said he appreciated the effort that went into the exhibit and enjoyed seeing people's reactions to it.

"I'm happy we did this, and I think it will play well during the holidays when people are out shopping," he said. "It will be a good way to introduce the University to people. Somebody looking at it would say, 'Wow this is a lot of buildings. Something must be going on there.'"

The artists created 23 buildings total and populated it with tiny figures, but there are no Lego Minifigures in the exhibit.

Zimmerle, a brick artist for 37 years, is accustomed to building big, but this was his first time re-creating something one-fourth of the size of his usual sculptures.

"I knew we weren't going to be able to do mini-figure size because it would be too big," said Zimmerle, who also is an art teacher for seventh- through 12th-graders and transforms into his town's Santa Claus in winter. "This is my first quarter-scale build."

Grace became a professional artist after seeing what adult creators had made and designing several local landmarks in Petoskey. He made a niche for himself creating creatures and characters.

"This was just on the verge of it being impossible," said Grace, who used math calculations and graph paper to plan his buildings. "This is the hardest thing I have ever built. Now it's the biggest model I have ever made."

When they were finished, the creators stood and admired the completed campus as spectators discovered fun details in a perfect plastic UT Dallas.

"Before this, we didn't know anything about UTD," Grace said. "Now UTD has become part of our lives. You become part of what you create. And because we created UTD, it now has a place in our hearts."