This Sault Ste. Marie company recreates northern Ontario landmarks out of Lego

Derek Pearce is looking to rebuild his city Lego brick by Lego brick.

The Sault Ste. Marie man started his business The Brickspace during the pandemic, after deciding he wanted to get out of the construction industry.

He's loved Lego since he was a kid and saw there were online marketplaces for custom bricks and pieces, but also saw other enthusiasts selling custom Lego sets. 

"So I started looking around our city here in Sault Ste. Marie and deciding, there's got to be some people in this town that want to collect stuff from their town," said Pearce

The first set he created was "the cross on the hill," which is on top of what's known as St. George's Hill. That drew the attention of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, in the stately former post office building in the city's downtown. 

"They were like, 'Hey, you know, the cross is interesting. We'd love to have one done of our building,'" he said.

Maybe the most popular set is the Edmund Fitzgerald, the ill-fated ship that sunk in Lake Superior in 1975 and was memorialized in a song by Gordon Lightfoot.  

"We can't keep it on the shelf," Pearce said. 

"It sells so much …. We can't keep it stocked. We stock it, somebody buys it. We stock it, somebody buys it. So that's a good problem to have."

He says he also has plans to create the Memorial Gardens, including both the current version of Sault Ste. Marie's arena and the one from 1993, when the local Greyhounds junior hockey team last won the national championship. 

"If anybody ever wants to have a set built, we're more than happy to accommodate them," he said.

Pearce says he plans to open a storefront for The Brickspace in Sault Ste. Marie and has dreams of franchising it across the country, so other cities and towns can be rebuilt in Lego. 

"The satisfaction when I see a customer buy our products, that's what I'm in it for," he said.