Wright, Brick by Brick

Kids (of all ages) rejoice! LEGO, the ubiquitous building toy empire, has just released its first two sets based on iconic Frank Lloyd Wright buildings: Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum.

If you're a parent of a child between four and forty-four, you probably stepped on at least one LEGO piece this morning, but it was most likely a tiny, specialized Star Wars figure or Bionicle weapon. But LEGO is going retro with its new Wright sets, in the sense that they promise pure structural delight - building largely with the sort of basic, "automatic binding bricks" that the company first introduced circa 1950.

The Wright sets are the collective brainchild of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Brickstructures, Inc., and the LEGO Architecture line, hitting the market in conjunction with the opening of the Guggenheim's Wright retrospective, Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. The LEGO - Wright collaboration seems a fitting (no pun intended) combination on a number of levels, given the inspiration of Froebel blocks to Wright in his formative years, the invention of Lincoln Logs by Wright's son John, and of course, the modular system of construction endemic to LEGOs and Wright's design systems alike - prompting many to call for a Usonian House (e.g. Jacobs I) as the next in the LEGO - Wright series.

Professional bias aside, I think the next logical addition to the series would be one of the great Prairie houses: Robie or Martin, anyone? The thousands (if not millions) of bricks required for a Martin House Complex set would surely have parents tearing out their remaining shag carpet and wincing at that inevitable "LEGO-in-the-vacuum" sound...