He built a million buildings of cardboard and balsa wood

A 50-by-27-foot model of New York City is on display at the Museum of the City of New York through at least September, and it took a truck driver 21 years to build it. Joe Macken, 63, grew up in Queens and started the project in 2004 after moving upstate, working in his basement from paper maps and printed photos before switching to Google Earth. The model represents all five boroughs plus the New Jersey coast, with nearly a million buildings made of cardboard and balsa wood. Manhattan alone took a decade. The idea dated to an elementary school field trip. "I said, 'I'm gonna build one of these myself one day,'" Macken told Nice News. "It took long enough, but I definitely kept my promise." His daughter got him on TikTok in 2025, where he went viral. Visitors use provided binoculars to find their own blocks. Macken is already at work on Minneapolis, a city he has never visited.