It took 24 years to build Independence Hall, from 1732 to 1756. It took a handful of Minecraft gamers just two months to do the same, virtually.
This group of six Minecraft builders, who built Independence Hall, are part of the Build The Earth group that has already built Seattle, Raleigh, and sections of New York City, all to a one-to-one scale in the game.
After past construction attempts had failed, Independence Hall was rebuilt with the Fourth of July in mind and unveiled on the holiday, accompanied by an in-game fireworks display.
Precision without proximity
The build is entirely accurate to its real-life counterpart, yet the builders involved have no ties to Philadelphia and have not visited the historic building.
Through Google Earth renderings and in-game commands that create outlines of the real-life locations, the builders ensured one-to-one accuracy and scale.
The attention to detail and care for accuracy are evident when examining the build.
Spanning three blocks, the Independence Visitor Center, Liberty Bell Center, and Independence Hall are all easy to spot, despite their cubic building materials – even the trees are built to precision.
Global builders, shared challenges
The builders said that the heavy tree cover in the area made it difficult to determine where certain structures should be built, but noted that the hardest part of the project wasn’t a function of the game but working as a team across real-life borders.
“It can be hard to lead like a team that’s all around, not even just the country, but also we have some international members as well,” said Jacob Sherman, Build The Earth’s public relations manager. “The time zone and language gap is always harder than any build.”
Sherman, who has been part of the Build The Earth project since 2020, worked with the team of builders who constructed Independence Hall. He worked alongside Colton Criswell, who also does public relations for Build The Earth.
The two met online through the project in 2021, during the early stages of Build The Earth, and have been friends since.
What is Build The Earth?
Build The Earth was started in March 2020 by YouTuber PippenFTS, with the end goal of — you guessed it — building the entire Earth to a one-to-one scale in Minecraft.
The project has teams of people from all over the globe working on projects. Approximately 130,000 people have been involved in the project’s various endeavors over time.
Those involved all communicate via a Discord server that’s divided by region and project. Builders must earn their right to build by participating in organizational events and demonstrating their skills through in-game play; the more participation and skill they exhibit, the more challenging the builds they’re tasked with.
For the unfamiliar, Minecraft is a building and survival game released by Mojang in 2011. You may recognize it from “A Minecraft Movie,” the April film starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa that sparked a rambunctious trend among moviegoers to shout “chicken jockey” during a particular scene.
While a Build The Earth team is currently working on a build of Philadelphia’s Center City and City Hall, their most ambitious project to date may be a recreation of New York City, which Sherman says is “about 22% complete.”
More than just a game
And it’s not just for fun. Some builds have been used for educational purposes.
Sherman shared that the team has collaborated with schools in Israel, Argentina and Chile to teach geodata and mapping.
Sherman believes that while the education component is useful, the most valuable aspect of the project is the opportunity to memorialize lost land.
After the village of Blatten in Switzerland was buried under a landslide in June, Build The Earth builders got to work reconstructing the village in-game to give residents a slice of what once was.
“It’s a way for people who once lived there to be able to see their old hometown as it was,” Sherman said.
While the educational and memorial aspects are important, Sherman and Criswell agree that it’s the community that keeps them engaged.
Through the work, Sherman shared, he’s made friends across the globe and on a recent trip to Asia, connected with Build The Earth friends from Brazil, Taiwan and Thailand.
“I do this for the community, honestly,” Criswell said. “There’s so many great people in here, and it’s always an awesome time building together, no matter what we’re working on, it’s just cool to connect.”
