On January 24, Westfield, New Jersey hosted a special America250 edition of its popular community program Build Westfield in LEGO, bringing families and residents together for a creative celebration of local and national history. Held at Westfield High School, the event invites families to use over 100,000 LEGO bricks and historic reference images to recreate iconic Westfield buildings alongside nationally significant landmarks such as Independence Hall and Mount Vernon.
Designed for all ages, the afternoon brought hands on creativity with civic pride, encouraging parents and children to explore architecture, history, and teamwork while marking the 250th anniversary of American independence. As part of Westfield’s broader America250 programming, the LEGO build highlights how history can be experienced not just through books and exhibits, but through imagination, collaboration, and play. Or as we like to say “history with a social twist.”
Build Westfield in LEGO was founded by architectural educator Stephen Schwartz, whose vision was to use LEGO building as a hands on way to teach local architecture, history, and community pride. While Stephen was unable to attend the January 24 event in person, the program was carried forward by his son Michael and his granddaughter, who oversaw the workshop and guided participants throughout the afternoon. Also involved was the Westfield Historical Society, which provided historic perspective and guidance, helping ensure the builds reflected the town’s architectural heritage and deepened the educational value of the event.
Michael Schwartz is an educator, which aligns closely with the educational mission behind Build Westfield in LEGO. In addition to helping oversee the event in his father’s absence, his background as a teacher helped shape how participants were guided through the building process, emphasizing learning, collaboration, and historical context rather than just construction. His involvement reflects how the program has always been rooted in teaching, using LEGO building as a tool to help people of all ages better understand architecture, history, and place.
About Building Blocks Workshops
Stephen Schwartz’s Building Blocks Workshops has taken its hands-on LEGO architectural heritage programs well beyond Westfield, partnering with a variety of towns and organizations across the region and beyond. The company has run Building in LEGO community events in other New Jersey towns such as Glen Ridge, Montclair, Morristown, Princeton, Summit, and Kearny, working closely with local historical and arts organizations to help families recreate historic buildings and explore their communities through bricks. It has also brought programs to locations outside New Jersey, including Bronxville, NY; Cazenovia, NY; Stony Brook, NY; Rye, NY; Stonington, CT; Westport, CT; Hershey, PA; and Delray Beach, FL, offering similar architectural and educational workshops that combine local history with creative building.
Typical engagement pricing: There is no standard published base price on the company’s own site, but community partner events using Building Blocks Workshops often set per-team or per-person fees. For example, a Building Blocks event in Princeton charged roughly $30 for a team of 2, around $37.50 for 3, and about $45 for a team of 4.
What Happens to the Buildings After the Event
I would have thought it would have been just as much fun for the kids to perform their best Godzilla impersonation and stomp out the buildings, but I guess that would be disrespectful to the creators.
One of the fathers who was having fun with his kids.
After the event concludes, the LEGO buildings are typically dismantled rather than permanently displayed. The focus of Build Westfield in LEGO is the collaborative process rather than creating a lasting physical model. Once the session ends, the bricks are carefully sorted and packed up by the workshop team so they can be reused at future programs in other towns. Photographs of the finished builds are often taken during the event to document the work, and those images along with the historical context provided by partners such as the Westfield Historical Society become the lasting record. In that sense, the real takeaway is the shared experience and the deeper understanding of local architecture and history that participants carry with them, not the LEGO structures themselves.
Photo Collection – Westfield in Legos
Related MLH Posts
Check out the full sized Lego Liberty Bell
