Washington, DC Landmarks

If you’ve been reading about many of my projects, you’ll notice that I end up building this combination of buildings from the national mall quite a bit for conferences and tradeshows in Washington, DC.  It’s an obvious choice, given that it makes such a great project and one that people will recognize and remember.  It’s also a treat to look at because the various buildings show off some fun card building techniques like pillars, a dome, and something pretty tall and precarious looking—the Washington Monument.  Charles Schwab asked me to build this project for the enjoyment of their attendees at their annual conference.  Every day the conference goes on, the bigger the house of cards gets.  The bigger card house gets, the more people start talking about the obvious question: “What happens to it at the end?”  They are usually delighted to hear they get to help knock it down if they hang around on the last day.  Attendees sometimes use conference-sanctioned projectiles, like branded bouncy balls or giant rubber bands.  But sometimes attendees get to use whatever they want.  They usually start out with the small stuff, like the cap off a pen, or a penny.  But once they see that it takes more than that to do any real damage, they get more aggressive and break out the water bottles, shoes, belts—even purses and briefcases have been known to go flying.  It seems to be a great way to relieve some stress after a long day at a conference.  Plus, it’s fun to brag to your children about apparently.  Really, it’s just good old fashioned fun, and it’s my favorite part of any project because people love the knockdown so much, and it helps prove that my work really was freestanding (no tape, no glue, no tricks!).