I am a Boston native, born in Jamaica Plain, MA. My family moved to Westwood, MA when I was very young and I grew up in the Boston suburb until college.
My childhood was filled with LEGO creations. My favorite, a toy piggy bank, lived in the days before cell phone cameras and died before I could ever photograph it.
I was too cool in high school to play with LEGO – the biggest mistake of my LEGO career. I stopped collecting, stopped playing, and always felt like I was missing something important in my life.
After high school I went to the College of William and Mary and made great friends, but still did not return to my love of LEGO.
It wasn’t until I met my wife Amy that things started to change. By now I was 30 and many of my LEGO peers had a 15-year head start, but Amy let me be me. The confidence I had lacked to let my inner child out exploded. At the same time, I discovered LEGO’s Digital Designer and I fell in love again with building.
I am a Boston native, born in Jamiaca Plain, MA. My family moved to Westwood, MA when I was very young and I grew up in the Boston suburb until college.
My childhood was filled with LEGO creations – my favorite, a toy piggy bank that lived in the days before Instagram and died before I could ever photograph it
I was too cool in high school to play with LEGO – the biggest mistake of my LEGO career. I stopped collecting, stopped playing and always felt like I was missing something important in my life.
But life pushed on and I went to the College of William and Mary. I made great friends but continued to suppress my urge to play with LEGO.
It wasn’t until I met my wife Amy that things started to change. But now I was 30 and many of my LEGO peers had a 15-year head start. But Amy let me be me and the confidence I lacked to let my inner child out exploded. At the same time, I discovered LEGO’s Digital Designer and I fell in love again with building.
In late 2013 I decided I wanted to build lighthouses for all the tables at our upcoming wedding in the summer of 2014. That started a long process of designing 22 different miniature lighthouses from around the country (places we had been together or intended to go someday). I learned about sourcing parts and built 20 lights in time for my wedding on September 20, 2014.
Since then I have designed a number of sets, both big and small, submitted many of them to LEGO Ideas and continue to challenge myself with new builds every day.
Designing LEGO sets is however just a hobby and not a full-time career. I am an engineer and entrepreneur in my day job. EvenKeel Advanced Custom Orthotics is a proprietary custom orthotic manufacturing system that I designed and built with my father, Dr. Frank Santopietro.
In my free time that I’m not spending building with LEGO, I enjoy spending time with my family at my parents’ summer home on Cape Cod, waterskiing, sailing, playing wiffleball, and cooking. And my newest favorite thing to do is play with my beautiful daughter.
Thanks for visiting, if you are interested in a custom set for your home or place of business, please don’t hesitate to contact me.