Bryan Berg facts for kids
Bryan Berg (born March 21, 1974) is an amazing American artist. He is known for building huge structures using only playing cards! He's a professional cardstacker, and he creates incredible "houses of cards" that are often taller or bigger than real buildings.
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Bryan Berg's Amazing Career
Bryan Berg is unique because he's the only person known to earn a living by building things with playing cards. He doesn't use tape, glue, or any tricks! He studied architecture at Iowa State University and later earned a master's degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design. This background helps him design super strong card structures.
Bryan has traveled all over the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia for his work. He builds card creations for big companies like Walt Disney World and Lexus. He has also worked with sports leagues like Major League Baseball and the NHL. Once, he even appeared in a music video for the band The Bravery, where he played a character who built a fantasy world from cards.
Breaking World Records with Cards
Bryan Berg is famous for breaking many Guinness World Records with his card structures. He first broke the record for the world's tallest house of cards when he was just 17 years old in 1992. That tower was about 14 and a half feet (4.4 meters) tall! Since then, he has broken his own record about ten times.
Tallest Card Towers
In 1998, Bryan built a tower at Iowa State University that reached about 25 feet (7.6 meters) high. It used over 1,500 decks of cards, weighing more than 250 pounds (113 kg)! It took him two and a half weeks to build it.
He built an even taller tower in Berlin, Germany, in 1999. This one was about 25.29 feet (7.7 meters) tall and used over 1,700 decks of cards. It had 131 stories!
His most recent record for the tallest tower was in Dallas, Texas. This tower was 25 feet, 9 inches (7.8 meters) tall. For this project, he tried a new way of stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally. This smart technique helped him use almost half the number of cards!
In 2009, Bryan tried to break a record on the TV show Live with Regis & Kelly. He had 60 minutes to build the tallest free-standing card structure. Unfortunately, when time ran out, the cards fell down, and he didn't get the new record that day.
Largest Card Creations
In 2004, Guinness World Records created a new category just for Bryan: the world's largest house of free-standing playing cards. His first record in this category was a replica of Cinderella's Castle for Walt Disney World.
In 2010, Bryan broke his own record again. He used over 218,000 cards to build a huge replica of the Venetian Macao resort. This amazing project took him 44 days to complete!
Bryan's Building Technique
Bryan usually builds his card structures without any tape, glue, or other tricks. His special method is so strong that his structures can support a lot of weight – about 660 pounds per square foot!
However, in 2006, he did use glue for one special project. He recreated the famous "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign using a strong adhesive. This was for a company called Loctite, and the sign was shown during a big poker event in Las Vegas.
Bryan Berg in the Media
Bryan Berg's incredible work has been featured in many places. He has appeared on major TV shows like CNN, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. His work has also been in popular magazines such as Wired, Reader's Digest, and Time for Kids.
He was also on the PBS game show Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. On the show, he taught the contestants how to build their own houses of cards.
In 2003, Bryan wrote a book called Stacking The Deck. In the book, he shares some of his techniques and explains how he builds his amazing card structures.
About Bryan's Life
Bryan Berg was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Today, he lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
See also
- House of cards
- Skyscraper
