even weighed in<\/a> from its official TikTok account, writing, \u201cA million buildings!? A museum needs to display this asap.\u201d<\/p>\nNot bad for a truck driver without any formal training in engineering or architecture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was my thing when I was doing it because, well, I was never into carpentry or anything like that,\u201d Macken confessed to The Post. \u201cBut I was into skylines.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got better at it and more experienced, and I found faster ways to build it,\u201d said Macken, shown in one of his social media posts. Joe Macken<\/p>\n
Macken, a Middle Village, Queens, native who moved upstate 20 years ago, told The Post that he began the project as a \u201chobby\u201d after getting inspired by seeing the Manhattan skyline out of his bedroom window. He also would watch old NYC documentaries featuring Rockefeller Center and iconic landmarks.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until April 2004 that he started creating his masterpiece, constructing one building a night, starting with the RCA building, aka Rockefeller Center.<\/p>\n
Before he knew it, he had \u201cbuilt all\u201d of 30 Rock, \u201cand then I started going uptown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Macken shows off just a small segment of his mammoth city model. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
Macken said recreating Manhattan was especially difficult as he had to customize each skyscraper from scratch. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
Just a year or two later, the whittling wizard had \u201cbuilt the whole Midtown [from] the Empire State Building, 34th Street, all the way up to 59th, all the way to the East River, and then to the Hudson.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing Manhattan in 2016, the model citizen then moved on to the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and finally Staten Island.<\/p>\n
The museum-quality craftsmanship is especially impressive since he used grammar school-grade materials from a local Michaels Art Supplies, opting for balsa wood after a friend told him that it\u2019s \u201creally light,\u201d strong and \u201ceasy to cut.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can build a whole 30-by-20-inch section [with] 1,500 houses or 2,000 houses in maybe 12 to 15 hours,\u201d said Macken. \u201cIt used to take me weeks, like, 15, 20 years ago.\u201d Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
He then used X-Acto knives for slicing structures down to size, Elmer\u2019s Glue for adhering them, and sandpaper and nail files for sanding while he colored the neighborhoods with acrylic paint using brush sets that cost $3.99.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need anything expensive to build this,\u201d proclaimed Macken, who nonetheless estimated that he\u2019s shockingly spent between $20,000 and $40,000 on materials to date.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Macken said that as his part-time but all-consuming project progressed, so did his technique.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got better at it and more experienced, and I found faster ways to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He eventually went from meticulously constructing each building individually to mass-producing whole blocks by carving a row of houses out of \u201cthe same piece of wood,\u201d drastically saving time.<\/p>\n
Macken\u2019s sprawling model \u2014 shown stacked up in a storage unit \u2014 also encompasses New Jersey and parts of Westchester. He even recreated Central Park and borough-connecting bridges. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
\u201cI can build a whole 30-by-20-inch section [with] 1,500 houses or 2,000 houses in maybe 12 to 15 hours,\u201d he said. \u201cIt used to take me weeks, like, 15, 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some incredulous TikTok viewers calculated that his million-building city would\u2019ve required him to construct 137 buildings per day over 21 years. But he said they didn\u2019t factor in his time-saving technique.<\/p>\n
While the shortcut worked for the somewhat uniform outer borough dwellings \u2014 the Bronx took just two years, he told The Post \u2014 it didn\u2019t fly in Manhattan. Each skyscraper required special attention due to the diverse \u201cshapes and sizes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Freedom Tower is tapered, so you have to sand that down and you have to cut,\u201d said Macken, who populated his miniature Central Park with model trees from Hobby Lobby.<\/p>\n
Macken claims to have spent between $20,000 and $40,000 on materials for the intricate model. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
Composing the physical love letter to the Big Apple understandably required some juggling for a man with a wife, three kids, and two jobs: He delivers food and beverages during the week, while on the weekend, he drives luxury buses that chauffeur people to Yankees games and weddings.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I\u2019d do all-nighters. I just build and build during any days off,\u201d Macken said. \u201cWake up early, I go right downstairs, and I work on it for about four hours on Saturday and Sunday morning, and I\u2019m off Monday, so I do it then, also.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery minute of spare time that I have, I just dedicate to doing that, and it just added up over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macken never set out to build the entire city. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, for now, Macken\u2019s pastime will remain just that. <\/p>\n
Despite calls for it to go on display, he said the mini-city is far too colossal to be shown at a museum \u2014 for now, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just made it so big that it\u2019s very hard to find a place to actually set it up and transport it,\u201d Macken lamented. \u201cIt would be a three-day process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until then, he plans to expand his creation and add other cities as well.<\/p>\n
His next fun-size urban project? <\/p>\n
Minneapolis, Minnesota \u2014 inspired, he said, by watching \u201cThe Mary Tyler Moore Show\u201d as a kid.<\/p>\n
But unlike sprawling NYC, the much smaller Midwestern city should \u201conly take about two years,\u201d he quipped with a hint of New Yorker side-eye.<\/p>\n
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