June 4, 2011 -- AIA Sand Castle Competition | Galveston

A Houston engineering firm, Jacobs of Houston, proved you can "Have Your Sandcastle and Eat it Too" Saturday in Galveston when they took home the first place prize in one of the world's largest amateur sandcastle competitions. The phrase was the title of their "Golden Bucket" award-winning sandcastle design at the 25th annual AIA SandCastle Competition held on Galveston's East Beach. The winning design by these very creative architects featured an elaborate sandcastle guarded by a dragon-eating dragon. Based on car count reports from the Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees, more than 25000 people attended the event. The competition, hosted by the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), included more than 60 teams who had only five hours to build their sandcastles. The second place "Silver Shovel" award went to the team from Matrix Spencer Architects of Houston for its Greek-themed design "The Midas Touch." The Matrix Spencer Architects team were the defending champions having won the "Golden Bucket" award in 2009 & 2010. The "Bronze Shovel", third place award, went to Colby Design; their theme was "Lion in the Sand". Listen in as Talk of the Bay visits with Rusty Bienvenue, Executive Director of AIA Houston, Perry Seeberger, of Seeberger Architecture and team members from the Matrix Spencer Archtects. Besure to sign up for our weekly newsletter "eTalk of the Bay". Just enter your email address into the box at the top of this page; information on ...