The Whitcomb Art Center, Knox College's bold, contemporary, and sustainable home to the art and art history departments, will open in January 2017.

Inspired by the new center, Knox students, staff, and faculty decided to have a little holiday fun and create a replica of the building—out of gingerbread.

To make the the gingerbread version an exact replica of the center—at least structurally—Lake|Flato, the architectural firm that designed the Whitcomb Art Center, provided detailed, scale-model plans that were used to create stencils for cutting the gingerbread. Knox's food service provider, Bon Appétit, served as the "general contractor," creating the gingerbread walls and different types of frosting needed to build the structure, fill seams, and adhere decorations to the gingerbread.

While the gingerbread art center is structurally a replica, true to its name, the creative and artistic juices of Knox faculty, staff, and students flowed while they took work or study breaks to complete the building.

Watch the decoration of the Gingerbread Whitcomb Art Center:

What did it take to bring the Whitcomb Gingerbread Art Center to life?

• 7.5 quarts of buttercream and one quart of royal icing
• 250 gumdrop
• 145 candy bricks
• 72 gingersnap cookie roof tiles
• 22 pretzel sticks
• one pound of chocolate rocks
• three dozen brownies
• one bag of mini-marshmallows 

Watch the progress of the construction of the new Whitcomb Art Center, including photos and time-lapse video at whitcombartbuilding.tumblr.com.