Tour De Paris

Ahh, Paris, the city of lights and love. In this wonderful depiction by Markus Rollbühler you can almost hear the sound of the cafes and see the Eiffel Tower rising above the buildings in the distance. The smell of fresh bread and coffee fills your nose as you walk past a bakery and as you walk over a bridge you can hear and smell the Seine, which is not a pleasant as the bread but is almost as beautiful. You walk past a restaurant and… wait, is that a rat cooking? It must have been your imagination. After all, Paris is a magical place.

Olureon Monastery

I live in California, which has missions dotted all the way up the coast (literally, the Spanish Empire built them walking distance from each other), and very strong Spanish aesthetic and cultural influences. So this excellent monastery by soccerkid6 feels familiar and "local". Plus I'm a sucker for Spanish tile roofs, I'm sitting under one right now in my house.

Welcome To Kahuka Koffee

There's so many things to love about this marvelous multi-level building by builder snaillad that I don't know where to start. The architecture is of course the stand-out feature. It's got the weightiness and stature of a baroque revival, without all the unnecessary ornateness. Just a strong, confident style with loads of character. I also really dig that retro delivery van. And as for the coffee shop, I'll just invite you to click through and look at the high res photos, it's packed with detail and just lovely.

Stately Wayne Manor

Ah billionaires, they sure build big houses don't they? Take this Bruce Wayne character, he certainly lives high on the hog doesn't he? Builder KW_Vauban has built just part of his opulent mansion, and it's positively jaw dropping. The level of detail in this thing is insane, I strongly encourage you to click through to take a tour of this place. As for the Batman/Bruce rumors, I don't think there's anything to it. Clearly someone that lives this nice has no need to dress up in black and go punch bad guys in the face.

Koelbel Building

The Hit the Bricks exhibit on the campus of Colorado University, Boulder is getting expanded thanks to the efforts of COWLUG. The already massive layout is going to be even bigger with additions like the Koelbel Building here by builder Imagine™. Having built with this wall technique before I know first hand what a huge investment in parts and time it is, but as you can see it's totally worth it.

Library

When I was a kid if you wanted to learn anything this is where you went, the library. I can vividly remember learning to write my name so I could get a library card to visit the one that was literally around the corner from my house. Of course it wasn't nearly as nice as this one from builder MaximB.

Mooneyes

It's a landmark of a west coast motorsports legend, the Mooneyes headquarters in Santa Fe Springs California. If you've spent any time around hotrods, or even just admired them as they rolled by, you've probably spotted the iconic cartoon eyes logo of this home-brewed and passionate company. Builder Norton74 brings us the historic location of the company in this stunning MOC, which is superbly detailed inside and out.

It's All An Illusion (Or A Sham)

Towering over the city of Pyongyang in North Korea, the Ryugyong Hotel is a testament to ill-conceived ideas (that's a pun, trust me). While started in 1987, it was never finished. And despite the shiny glass exterior, it's basically just a glorified telecommunications tower. In fact, it's only shiny on one side, the side that faces their mortal enemies, South Korea. The other side is indicative to it's true nature, an abandoned building. Ryan McNaught built this as part of his Brickman Wonders of the World exhibit.

Le Garage

There are a few things in life that I really geek out about, the first being LEGO, of course, the second being automobiles. When you put the two together and add a little bit (or in this case, a lot) of charm you have me hook, line and sinker. The charm is in this case that builder brickbink didn't just create another auto shop, but he created an old French auto shop. The details are just perfectly French, from the building and automobile design, to the baguette on the work bench, and finally the mustachioed mechanic.

Residence Fit For A King

Baroque architecture is not easy to do. By definition it's bold, ornate and a bit over the top, and so many builders confuse complexity with detail, and end up with something that's just to busy. Not so with this lovely facade by builder Jonas Wide. The use of color, detailing, ornate decoration and architectural balance of this building is just perfect. I highly recommend clicking through and scrolling over the large image, it's whole minutes of eye candy waiting to be had.

Architectural Blues

To me, some modern buildings look like they were designed on a Friday afternoon, in the dark,  just before the rush out the door and down the road to the pub! Some, on the other hand have style, grace and presence. This Modern Apartment block by Lisqr has a lot of style indeed. lots of shiny blue walls and neat details such as the railings, but realistic and simple too. This wouldn't look out of place in an Architects studio

The Shard

This iconic building was still under construction when I was living and working in London in 2010, but even in it's half-built unfinished state it was impressive. It was completed in 2012 and while it had somewhat divided the public at first, it has since found it's way into the hearts and minds of Londoners and the world. It's a beautiful building, and this brick version by Rocco Buttliere is just as beautiful. Click through for more pics.

Mini Ghostbusters Headquarters

Leave it to paddybricksplitter to successfully shrink the Ghostbusters headquarters into a 16x16 footprint. Despite it's relatively small size, it's instantly recognizable and totally iconic. There's even a pretty pesky poltergeist that's just itching to be trapped.

The Elephant Building

Craftsmanship seems to be all but forgotten these days. When a new building goes up it's generally pretty boring, and in no time at all very dated and falling apart. We just don't build like we used to, with care and pride. Unless we're talking about LEGO buildings of course. Sure there's the usual police stations and houses, but occasionally we get spoiled by something like this absolutely wonderful structure by Sheo. It's not only gorgeous on the outside, it's fully decorated and furnished inside. Click through for more pictures from all it's excellent levels.