PGAL and Manhattan Construction Group Win Top Honors at 2025 AIA Houston Sandcastle Festival

PGAL, in partnership with Manhattan Construction Group, captured the coveted Gold Bucket Award at the 2025 AIA Houston Sandcastle Festival with the team’s crowd-pleasing entry, “Shrek Island.” The win was announced by AIA Houston following the weekend-long event at East Beach.

“Shrek Island” blended the humor of Shrek with the reality-TV flair of Love Island, delivering a playful narrative supported by precise sculpting, sharp detailing, and smart site use. Judges recognized the build with the competition’s top prize, selected from a professional field that included 27 teams of architects, engineers, and builders.

The AIA Houston Sandcastle Festival is one of the world’s largest amateur sandcastle competitions and a signature public event on Galveston’s East Beach. The 2025 festival ran September 13–14 in partnership with La Izquierda Fest. Teams planned for months, then had a limited window on competition day to transform 15 cubic yards of sand into finished works that are judged on originality, technical difficulty, execution, and carving technique.

PGAL acknowledges the support of our event partners and sponsors - Walter P Moore, LESCO Lighting, PBS Engineers, Inc., Bell & McCoy Companies, Sto Corp., Landtech, Inc., Shaw Contract, Baker Construction, American Door Products, and STV Inc. - whose collaboration made this achievement possible.