Excitement mounted like LEGO blocks in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on the afternoon of December 27, as the Young Engineers group unveiled a 36-meter (118.11-foot) tower expected to break the Guinness world record for the highest toy-bricks structure ever.
In all, more than half a million toy bricks were used in the project, dubbed the “Omer Tower” in memory of Omer Sayag, who died of cancer at the age of 8½ and loved constructing with plastic bricks.
Parts of the colorful tower were built at community centers around the city from December 12 through 20, enabling residents to interact and join in this mammoth and fun project, which was conceived by Omer’s former preschool teachers Shirli Bardugo and Ben Klinger.
The Young Engineers group, which teaches scientific and mathematical principles to schoolchildren using K’nex and LEGO bricks, oversaw putting together all the premade parts into the final skyscraper.
Guinness has not yet officially confirmed that the Israeli structure surpasses the previous record-holder, built in Milan in 2015. But that’s just a formality – the Italian tower stood just 35.05 meters.
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