Overview
- Truck driver and Queens native Joe Macken spent about 21 years crafting a roughly 50-by-27-foot cityscape from balsa wood on foam boards, assembled from more than 300 numbered sections with an estimated 800,000 pieces.
- The exhibition, titled “He Built This City,” opens Feb. 12 at the Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem and is scheduled to run through the summer.
- Museum staff discovered the project after Macken’s TikTok posts drew millions of views, prompting curators to bring the work to the Dinan Miller Gallery.
- The installation was delivered by Macken in a rental truck and joined together at the museum in about 14 hours, aided by his meticulous numbering system.
- The model reflects Macken’s personal perspective rather than strict accuracy, featuring details like the Twin Towers alongside One World Trade Center and other idiosyncrasies, with plans to expand into surrounding regions over the next decade.