Sandcastle Competition
Saturday, September 13, 2025
East Beach parking is $15 (CASH ONLY; NO ATM)
All attendees 12 years old and older must purchase a ticket. Tickets can be pre-ordered or purchased at the gate for $10.00. Your ticket does not include parking.
Team registration begins Monday, April 7
Ticket pre-sale begins Monday, April 7
Co-Chair
Animesh Gupta, RA, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Jacobs
Animesh.Gupta@jacobs.com
Co-Chair
Lisa Bench
Gensler
Lisa_bench@gensler.com
Staff Liaison
Alex Moreno
alexm@aiahouston.org
Staff Liaison (Vendor Contracts)
Jennifer Ward
jennifer@aiahouston.org
Galveston Sandcaste 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
