JOE MACKEN’S NYC

REBEKAH BRANDES REPORTS “Incredible Miniature Replica of New York City Took Truck Driver Over 20 Years To Build,” Nice News, August 8, 2026. 

Image by David Lurvey/Museum of the City of New York via Nice News.

Talk about fulfilling a childhood dream! Queens-born Joe Macken, 63, remembers fondly The Panorama of the City of New York model displayed the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. (I also remember it well: “It’s said you never forget your first kiss, your first love, your first…. But what about your first taco?”)  

Rebekah Brandes recounts that Macken “found time over the last two decades to meticulously produce ‘one of the most ambitious handmade representations of New York City ever created.’ That’s according to the Museum of the City of New York, where Macken’s model is on display through at least September.” Here are tidbits about Macken’s fantastic model, together with my usual Internet trippin’. 

Bigger Than a Pickleball Court. “The model,” Brandes observes, “is 50 feet by 27 feet, which, for context, is about the size of a small dance studio and bigger than a standard pickleball court. Representing all five boroughs as well as the New Jersey coast, it features nearly 1 million buildings (seriously), along with bridges, parks, streets and other landmarks, all made from basic materials like cardboard and balsa wood.” 

Brandes describes, “He started with a replica of the iconic 30 Rock skyscraper at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan before moving on to the rest of the borough. Setting up shop in his basement, he initially worked from books, paper maps, and printed photographs but soon transitioned to using Google Earth. The tech helped him streamline the process, as did his increasing skill. ‘I got better at it, so I was able to build it faster,’ Macken said. ‘Manhattan took me 10 years to build, and the other four boroughs took me 10 years to build.’ ” 

A TikTok Debut. Brandes says, “At the encouragement of his daughter, Macken began sharing photos and videos of his model on TikTok in 2025, and he quickly went viral. His account now has over 3.3 million likes and nearly 283,000 followers.”

Panel by Panel Storage. At first, Macken’s hobby had panels piled in a storage facility. “Unable to put together the entire model at his home,” Brandes describes, “Macken first displayed it in a barn on the Cobleskill Fairgrounds last August after a restaurant owner on Macken’s delivery route offered him the space…. ‘People were going crazy,’ he shared, noting: ‘Everyone just says the same thing. It’s either amazing, spectacular, awesome.’ ”

And no wonder. Brandes observes, “The museum exhibit, titled ‘He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model,’ opened in February after curators caught wind of the social media hubbub. Visitors are encouraged to use provided binoculars to view the model’s remarkable detail, and many NYC residents are delighted to find their own blocks.” 

Macken’s New Project. Brandes recounts, “Macken said he wants to bring the model around the country so that people who can’t make it to New York can get a little taste of the city. And he’s already at work on his next piece, a replica of Minneapolis. He’s never been to the Midwest metropolis but explained: ‘Mary Tyler Moore was my favorite show when I was a kid,’ referencing the iconic ’70s sitcom filmed there.”

An NYT View. Macken’s mini Gotham has appeared in other articles, including John Forman Gill’s “The Work of Robert Moses? No, It’s Joe Macken,” The New York Times, March 20, 2026: “Last July,” Gill reports, “he unveiled his own private Gotham on TikTok, where one of his videos went viral; to date, it has racked up 10 million views. Museum officials took notice, catapulting him last month from eccentric basement hobbyist to artist with a solo show on Museum Mile.”

Rebekah Brandes concludes, “For all the ambition behind his New York Model, there’s no lofty artist’s statement accompanying it, and Macken isn’t intent on conveying a specific message through his work. ‘I just want them to enjoy it,’ he said of viewers, adding, ‘Just looking at the expressions on people’s faces, that’s my favorite part of the whole thing.’ ”

And that, gentle reader, is why the website is called Nice News. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026