Upstate trucker Joe Macken\u2019s TikTok-famous scale model of New York City will be displayed at the Museum of the City of New York this winter, Gothamist can exclusively report.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe Built This City: Joe Macken\u2019s Model\u201d will open to the public early next year, on Feb. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresented publicly for the first time in New York City\u2014the very subject of the work\u2014Macken\u2019s model stands as a deeply personal yet universally resonant tribute to the city,\u201d reads a press release.<\/p>\n
Macken, 63, began building the monumental 50-by-30-foot model in his Clifton Park, NY basement back in 2004. Over the subsequent two decades, Macken \u2013 who has neither formal carpentry nor engineering training \u2013 used only balsa wood, Elmer\u2019s glue, and Styrofoam to create miniature versions of every building in the five boroughs. Upon completion this April, \u201cI jumped outta my chair and I cheered,\u201d he said. Soon after, he relegated his creation (built on separate panels, for ease of breakdown) into a storage unit, where it collected dust until his kids encouraged him to post about it on TikTok.<\/p>\n
Joseph Macken, 63, with his scale model of Manhattan<\/p>\n
Joseph Macken<\/p>\n
It became a viral a hit, and in August one of his work clients invited him to give the finished work its first public display<\/a>, at the Cobleskill Fairgrounds near Albany. It proved as much of a hit in person as it was online. Soon after, the Museum got in touch.<\/p>\n When Elisabeth Sherman began as MCNY\u2019s Chief Curator and Deputy Director this September, she was informed that the museum was in touch with Macken, and formalized his exhibit.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is absolutely the kind of celebration of the city, but also the kind of artistic vision that often goes uncelebrated or unacknowledged that I am personally very interested in highlighting,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great joy to work on as one of my first projects at the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n