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Sandcastle Competition Committee

Sandcastle Competition, presented by 811

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Tickets
Saturday: $15.00
Sunday: $10.00
Chilren 12 and under are granted free general admission
A ticket must be purchased for each day.
East Beach parking is $15 (not included with the purchase of ticket(s)).

East Beach
1923 Boddeker
Galveston, TX 77550
Purchase Tickets
Additional Resources

Sandcastle Competition Committee
Galveston Sandcastle Festival
2025 Galveston Sandcastle Festival Winners
2024 Galveston Sandcaste Festival Winners
Volunteer!
Sponsors
Team and Sponsor Information
Sandcastle Building Tips
Sustainability Efforts

Co-Chair
Animesh Gupta, RA, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
BSA

Co-Chair
Lisa Bench
Gensler
Lisa_bench@gensler.com

Staff Liaison (teams and vendor contracts)
Alex Moreno
alexm@aiahouston.org

2024 Galveston Sandcastle Festival Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 37th AIA Sandcastle Competition!

GOLD BUCKET (1st Place)
Architect Insane Asylum
Ziegler Cooper + Paradigm Construction
Category: Traditional Castle


SILVER SHOVEL (2nd Place)
Mad Garden Par-Tea
PGAL/Manhattan Construction
Category: Nature/Floral/Botanicals

BRONZE SHOVEL (3rd Place)
Dexter’s Conservatory
Kirksey + Tellepsen + MGC
Category: Kidtastsic: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Best Small Team
TADAO ANDUSA
GAGE Architecture
Category: Mythology

Best Team T-Shirt
Sticking With Tradition
Gensler/Harvey
Category: Traditional Castle

Best Team Signage
Mad Garden Par-Tea
PGAL/Manhattan Construction
Category: Nature/Floral/Botanicals

Best Pop Culture: Music/Song Lyrics
It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere
Powers Brown Architecture, Structure Tone Southwest, Pape Dawson Engineers


Best Kidtastic: Saturday Morning Cartoons
The Flintstones: Galve-stone
Corgan + HP

Best Nature/Floral/Botanicals
The Sandsational Audrey
MOREgroup + Huckabee + IEG + Skanska


Best Mythology
Atlantis Squarepantis
Stantec + Brookstone + PEA

Best Traditional Castle
Sticking With Tradition
Gensler/Harvey

Best Architectural Icon
1940s Air Terminal Museum
Lunartics (Houston Airport Systems)

Most Sustainable Team Presented by 811
Spongebob Sandpants
SandPants (Perkins&Will + Clark Construction)
Category: Kidtastic: Saturday Morning Cartoons


AIA College Challenge
9/11 Memorial & Museum
Prairie View A&M University School of Architecture
Category: Architectural Icon
Today

Sandcastle Competition Committee