Rebuilding the World a Toothpick at a Time

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Armed with Elmer's glue, elbow grease and grocery store toothpicks, Stan Munro built his own world.

And last weekend, Mr. Munro's Toothpick World came to New York City for the show-and-tell event Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens.

Mr. Munro, 42, of Syracuse, brought 1-to-164-ratio scale models of some of the world's most famous buildings, including Yankee Stadium, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, St. Patrick's Cathedral and a finished version of the still-under-construction 1 World Trade Center. His work was featured on Inhabitat.com on Tuesday.

The Italian restaurant Tony DiNapoli's on West 43rd Street, where Mr. Munro's brother works, temporarily displayed a toothpick St. Patrick's Cathedral in its front window before Maker Faire.

Mr. Munro, a former television reporter and writer for True Detective magazine, toyed with toothpick art fo r 30 years. But he got serious about it after he had to be home more to care for his wife, Suzi, who has polycystic kidney/liver disease.

Mr. Munro rarely sells his buildings unless he receives offers too good to pass up â€" like the $15,000 he fetched for one of his St. Patrick's Cathedral models.

He makes a living renting his Toothpick World exhibit for display. And he wants to keep building Toothpick World for as long as he can.

“It's a hobby and a passion that became a career,” he said by phone on Tuesday. “What could be better than that?”