Even as they prepare to break ground in September on their seventh Tower for Humanity, Guam’s Aydlett brothers are already planning next year’s project where they aim to break their own Guinness World Records for tallest and largest toy timber log structure. 

Landon and Brandon Aydlett, identical twins who work as meteorologists with National Weather Service Guam, will start construction on Dubai’s One Za’abeel Tower on Sept. 24 at Agana Shopping Center.  

While it won’t be their tallest structure, it will be the most complex because of the engineering challenges in replicating One Za’abeel. The Dubai structure holds the Guiness World Record for longest cantilevered building because of The Link, a 754-foot horizontal structure that connects two towers and includes a 216-foot cantilevered section.  

“I really wanted that one just for the challenge of it. The mindset is, they’ve done it in real life, we can do it with Lincoln logs - we just have to figure out how,” Landon said. “We think we have a plan that’s going to work, we did a test build at my house a couple of weeks ago.”

Like their last five projects, this one won’t be breaking the record they set in 2022 with their first Tower for Humanity, which used  74,019 logs to build a 25-foot replica Chicago’s Willis Tower (the former Sears Tower). That Guinness run took 18 months of coordination, and so they’ve already begun planning for their record-breaking attempt in spring 2026.   

The One Za’abeel project, shown as a model above, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest cantilever building in the world. A cantilever is structure that extends horizontally and is unsupported on one end.

Left: A closeup of the cantilevered sky concourse known as The Link, which connects One Za’abeel Tower and One Zaa’abeel The Residences in the Za’abeel (which means white sands) district of Dubai. Photos courtesy of Landon Aydlett

“We're aiming for May, and so we plan to break a new height and the size record for the number of blocks. I've already got plans in the works for that tower. It's going to be based based off of a tower in Saigon, Vietnam — Ho Chi Minh City — a brand new tower there. And so we're going to be rolling out these plans very soon,” Landon said.

“While we can't have people help us build that structure for a number of regulations, we will need an army of volunteers to be serve as witnesses, because we're not going to have Guinness World Record officials here on site, which will be very expensive,” he added. “We're going to need core volunteers that will witness and write down statements and testimony and also keep track of numbers and logs as we build.” 

As with all their previous tower projects, the Aydletts are once again partnering with a charity as part of their mission to give back to the community — “to help build a better Guam, one block at a time,” as they said in a press release. 

CANSTRUCTION COMPETITION AND FOOD DRIVE

This year they’ll be supporting the nonprofit Be Heartfelt for the 3rd Annual Canstruction Guam Competition and islandwide food drive.   

They’re hoping organizations, businesses and school groups will come together to create at least 20 teams to help collect 25,000 cans of food that Be Heartfelt will use to provide weekend meals for children in need. 

“For this upcoming project we will have several food collection sites set up around Guam as different organizations volunteer,” said Brandon, science and operations officer at NWS Guam. “If you’re already thinking about making a team — you can already start collecting food.” 

The canned goods will be collected now through through early October, then brought to the Agana Shopping Center on Oct. 3 to set up for the Canstruction competition. The teams will build their own structures with the cans on Oct. 4, and voting will take place on Oct. 5. Prizes will be awarded for best design, most public votes, and the most canned goods collected.  

Aside from the food drive, a block sponsorship program offers folks a way to not only support the charity, but leave your personal legacy on the upcoming and future projects. Brandon was at first dubious about having people mark and color the blocks, but the popularity of the sponsorship changed his mind.  

“There have been some really incredible artwork jobs on some of the blocks in the past. You personalize it, put your name, put your family members, whatever — and then it becomes part of the tower and future projects. So that is one of the really neat legacies that really showcases the charitability of the people of Guam helping others in need,” Brandon said.

“As we go into tower project number 7 next month, tower project number 8 in the future, and so on, more of those blocks are personalized, they’re colored, they show that legacy of Guam. That has been really one of the most amazing parts of these projects.”

GET INVOLVED

Organizations can sign up to provide a food drive site and/or participate in the Canstruction Competition by filling out this form

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