Joe Macken drives a truck for work, but two decades ago, he stumbled upon a very particular passion — carving New York City buildings out of balsa wood.
Before the days of Google Maps, the 63-year-old Queens-native found street views in library books.
“I just use basic kindergarten stuff”
Raised in Middle Village, Macken settled with his wife and children upstate in Saratoga County. And every night after dinner, the cityscape in his basement workshop grew.
Soon, the buildings became blocks, and the blocks became boroughs, each carved precisely to scale in a miniature Big Apple…