ROTTERDAM, N.Y. -- After 11 years, and about 75,000 hours of work, a local man's scale replica of Manhattan is on display at the Rotterdam Mall.
When Joe Macken started his project in 2005 he had no idea how far it would eventually go. Macken plans to add all of New York City’s boroughs to the piece that already has more than 37,000 miniature buildings.
Every piece hand is crafted in the basement of Macken's Clifton Park home, in his spare time. He says his favorite part about it, is sharing it with others.
"This is what I love. This is what I waited 10 years for, 11 years for. Just for people to come down and look at it and just tell everyone else to come down. That's my favorite part. People's expressions on their faces,” said Macken, creator.
Macken expects it to take him 15 more years to fully complete the city.
He hopes one day it will be put on display in a place like the New York-New York Hotel in Las Vegas.