Kirksey Architecture + Metzger Construction Team Takes Home Golden Bucket

09/01/2016 | Kirksey Architecture

Kirksey Architecture + Metzger Construction Team Takes Home Golden Bucket, Second Year in Row at 2016 AIA Sandcastle Competition


HOUSTON, TEXAS – For the second year in a row, Kirksey Architecture + Metzger Construction proudly took home the coveted Golden Bucket Award for this year’s AIA Sandcastle Competition in Galveston, Texas on Saturday, August 20th.

This year, the Kirksey + Metzger team did “Finding Gory,” a play on the Disney/Pixar animated sequel to Finding Nemo, complete with Dory, the lovable, but forgetful blue tang fish, but incorporated a wicked, comically dark spin featuring some of Disney’s villains from the sea. The team was also won “Best Team T-Shirt” and “Kidtastic! - Disney Edition,” a new competition category, for their sandcastle creation.

Despite a forecast of rain for the rescheduled 2016 AIA Sandcastle Competition, Mother Nature relented and the teams were able to carve out a successful day of fun in the sun and sand.

"Kirksey has a tradition of putting a twist on our sandcastle theme to help the work stand out from the crowd,” said Cynthia Helms, AIA, Kirksey member. “Sometimes it's through mixing two contrasting elements together. This year we turned Finding Dory on its tailfin and used the traditional roles of the characters as they would be in the real world to ignite a scene of energy and ‘gore.’”

The team spent hours planning the design, working from a scaled-down-to-size clay model to use as a guide. The day of the competition, the team was divided into separate groups and each conquered their portion of the design.

“It was an amazing team effort, and we always have so much fun working together every year at the AIA Sandcastle Competition,” said Andrew Tyler, Kirksey’s “Sandman,” and Sandcastle team leader.