In Minnesota, House Where Gingerbread Man Could Live
Looking over the blueprints and forms submitted to the city for approval, it's not that unusual a structure. It’s nearly 65 ft high, with an internal structure of scaffolding and drywall, and has all the proper lighting and sprinklers required to meet normal building codes. Perhaps the only major difference is that people walking through the finished structure could be tempted to break off a piece of the building and eat it.
Just inside the western entrance of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., construction finished Nov. 22 on the World’s Largest Gingerbread House. In addition to being the tallest gingerbread house ever at 63 ft 2 inches, the building’s 1,496sq-ft footprint and the 14,000 lbs of gingerbread and 5,000 lbs of icing used in construction also make it the biggest. Building this one-of-a-kind-structure challenged the construction professionals involved, particularly those not accustomed to working with cookie-based building materials. The short-term project -- begun at the end of September and scheduled for dismantling in January -- is a feel-good holiday effort aimed at raising funds to assist senior citizens.