LEGO Showcase Crowns Winners as an Eaton Fire Build Takes Top Youth Honor

Children (9–12) Category Winner of the Design Your LEGO® Showcase, Johnathan, with his design. [photo credit: City of Pasadena]

A tribute to disability inclusion and a build about a family’s loss in the Eaton Fire took top honors at the Pasadena Public Library’s 10th annual Design Your LEGO Showcase.

The contest drew builders across five age divisions to the Jefferson Branch Library, at 1500 E. Villa St., on Saturday, July 11, according to the City of Pasadena — one of several summer programs the library has run from neighborhood branches since its flagship Central Library closed for a seismic retrofit.

In the adult division, a builder identified as Michael won for a design honoring the library’s iBook Club, a group that meets monthly to discuss books through the lens of disability inclusion. His creation incorporated accessibility symbols and figures using canes and wheelchairs, the city said.

In the children’s division, for ages 9 to 12, Johnathan won for “Hope in the Ashes,” a build drawn from his family’s loss of their home in the Eaton Fire and the rebuilding now underway, according to the city. The January 2025 fire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures across Altadena and eastern Pasadena, among the most destructive wildfires in California history.

Builders in the family, young children, children, teen and adult divisions presented their creations and described the work behind them before a panel of judges, who scored entries on originality and creativity, presentation and complexity, the city said.

The showcase runs at Jefferson because the Central Library, a 1927 landmark at 285 E. Walnut St. designed by architect Myron Hunt, has been closed since May 3, 2021, after inspectors found the unreinforced masonry building vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake. Voters approved $195 million in bonds through Measure PL in November 2024, and the City Council cleared the retrofit’s full construction phase on March 2 under a contract with PCL Construction Services not to exceed $186.2 million. The building, which turns 100 in February 2027, is expected to reopen in summer 2028.

The library has kept its summer programming going from its 10 branches during the closure. Director of Libraries and Information Services Tim McDonald has described the library as “a valuable asset that helped me learn, grow and discover.” The Summer Reading Program, a tradition the library says has run for 103 years and now operates with reduced programming, is sponsored by the Friends of the Pasadena Public Library.

Images of the winning and submitted designs are posted in an online gallery at https://bit.ly/2026DesignYourLEGO.