I built this replica of a private residence on commission. This house, nicknamed “North Shore Chattanooga” by its owner, is a gorgeous piece of architecture that was a blast to replicate in bricks!
Although this model was built before the premiere of LEGO Masters—so I’ve had it waiting in the wings for a little while—I’ve decided to share it now in partnership with Habitat for Humanity for their Stay Home, Build a Home challenge. You can participate in the challenge yourself by building a miniature home before May 1, and tagging it with #StayHomeBuildAHome; it doesn’t have to be out of LEGO, but I of course was biased towards this medium!
Please support Habitat for Humanity’s important work by donating on my fundraising page, and learn more about the special stuff I’m sharing with people who donate here!
I am extremely proud of this little model, which I think packs in a great deal of accuracy and detail despite its small size. Learn more about the design choices I made on my replica of North Shore Chattanooga by reading on.
Design Choices
North Shore Chattanooga sits on a slight incline; its little hill is integral to its architecture, and so was essential to include in my model. After all, the garages and driveway couldn’t sit below the swimming pools unless the rest of the house was supported and elevated.
Although the real house sits between neighbors, I decided to artistically shear off the terrain on all sides of my model, leaving us with a dramatic and eye-catching cutaway effect that I really adore.
To accomplish an accurate pitch to the roof, I turned to SNOT for the front and back sides of the house. This is because perfect 45 degree angles come pre-fabricated in myriad wedge plates and tiles, but not in standard studs-up slopes.
The necessity of SNOT construction, however, meant that I had no choice but to make these little square windows protrude slightly from the wall. If I wanted to achieve accurate placement, there was simply no way to inset them while also keeping the wall flat and clean.
To bring the roof to a sharp corner at its ridge, I actually had to build one face of the roof taller than the other, and attach the shorter section one stud down on its longer counterpart. I leaned on some LEGO geometric rules to ensure that the asymmetrical corner would look flush and still be centered.
The roof of this model is actually unattached to the rest of the build, and simply sits in place. Robust internal structuring ensures that the roof does not lose its own shape; it slots down and fits like a puzzle piece on top of the walls and dormers.
The dormers serve two functions on this model: one, accuracy to the house (of course!) and two, acting as guides for the roof to slide into its proper place. Each panel of the roof has been designed to fit like a glove over these protruding windows.
While the bits of roof that cover the dormers and the porch are all attached in the same way, using modified plates, no two are exactly the same. Each surface needed to be fine-tuned so that it sat as flat as possible on the area it was meant to cover.
The tower is one of North Shore Chattanooga’s boldest features, and it was one of the most important portions of the model to nail. There are two columns of windows on the tower, but they don’t line up perfectly with one another, nor even use the same size of windows. As such, each column had to follow its own pattern.
I did my best to tie the windows structurally together using a central core, but I couldn’t offer any reinforcement to the outermost 1x1 dark tan corner without ruining the strong vertical lines elsewhere. It is, therefore, the model’s flimsiest spot.
These two swimming pools which “hover” over the garage are another signature element of North Shore Chattanooga. They’re built using trans-blue bricks all the way down to their bottoms to provide an iridescent, lifelike quality.
To accomplish the glass-edged balconies, I knew I’d want to take advantage of the delicate lines of panels. For the corners, I had to use 1x2 panels with double corners, rather than the 1x1 variant, since only the former came in the trans-clear color I needed.
The real garages of North Shore Chattanooga have a gorgeous diagonal woodwork pattern that was simply impossible to recreate at this scale… believe me, I tried! Still, I think the horizontal lines I’ve went for instead look nicely polished.
The doors, at three studs tall, are impossible to align perfectly with any standard LEGO height. I turned the tiny crack above each door into a deliberate choice by subtly insetting the garage doors, leading to their “outline” in shadow.
The most difficult—and most satisfying—aspect of North Shore Chattanooga to accomplish was the thin cement wall next to the staircase. I couldn’t offer any support above the level of the path on these light grey bricks without making the wall look over-wide, so most of the plates and tiles I’ve used are anchored into the SNOT hillside rather than the stairs.
The square cutout at the base of the steps was especially devilish; it’s actually the black front gate which suspends the 2x2 corner tile in its proper place.
Thanks for reading! If you have any other questions or thoughts about this model, feel free to leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to donate to my fundraiser. And, if you’re interested in getting a model like this yourself, reach out to me about commissioning one of your own!