October 30, 2018
by Center for Architecture
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Pritzkerpumpkin Winner: Alloy. Photo: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Center for Architecture.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Center for Architecture.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
People's Pumpkin and Pretentioulicious Winner: SITU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Hell Tech: Ennead Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Hell Tech: Ennead Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Miserable Mess: Rafael Viñoly Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Miserable Mess: Rafael Viñoly Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions) - Miserable Mess: Rafael Viñoly Architects.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Miserable Mess: Rafael Viñoly Architects. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Poetic: Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Poetic: Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions) - Most Poetic: Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Poetic: Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Profound: Davis Brody Bond.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Profound: Davis Brody Bond. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Profound: Davis Brody Bond.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - Most Profound: Davis Brody Bond. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - The Totem: WEISS/MANFREDI. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Pathetic Consolation (Honorable Mention) - The Totem: WEISS/MANFREDI. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Architecture Research Office. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Architecture Research Office. Photo: Erik Bardin.
Architecture Research Office. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Architecture Research Office. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Dattner Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Dattner Architects. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Dattner Architects.
Dattner Architects. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Henning Larsen. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Henning Larsen. Credit: Erik Bardin.
Henning Larsen. Credit: Center for Architecture.
Henning Larsen. Credit: Center for Architecture.
HWKN. Credit: Center for Architecture.
HWKN. Credit: Center for Architecture.
KPF. Credit: Erik Bardin.
KPF. Credit: Erik Bardin.
KPF. Credit: Center for Architecture.
KPF. Credit: Center for Architecture.
PRO - Peterson Rich Office. Credit: Erik Bardin.
PRO - Peterson Rich Office. Credit: Erik Bardin.
PRO - Peterson Rich Office. Credit: Erik Bardin.
PRO - Peterson Rich Office. Credit: Erik Bardin.
REX. Credit: Erik Bardin.
REX. Credit: Erik Bardin.
ROGERS PARTNERS. Credit: Erik Bardin.
ROGERS PARTNERS. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SCAPE. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SCAPE. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SCAPE. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SCAPE. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SOFTlab. Credit: Erik Bardin.
SOFTlab. Credit: Erik Bardin.
TEN Arquitectos. Credit: Erik Bardin.
TEN Arquitectos. Credit: Erik Bardin.
The dreaded jury. Credit: Center for Architecture.
The dreaded jury. Credit: Center for Architecture.

The Center for Architecture hosted its third-annual Pumpkitecture! Architectural Pumpkin Carving Competition, kicking off Halloween weekend in NYC. Twenty New York City-based firms (and the Center for Architecture home team) went gourd to gourd to compete for the Pritzkerpumpkin on Friday, October 26.

Summoning the sinister specters of architects past, firm acolytes conjured their creative spirits to awaken their eerie eyeholes for design. Beyond the standard pumpkin-carving tool set, supplied by the Center for Architecture, firms were encouraged to bring their own tools and materials; SITU upped the ante by bringing not one but two microwaves.

After an hour and 15 minutes of carving, our dreaded jury—comprised of Laila Gohar, chef and conceptual artist; Jing Liu, principal and co-founder at SO-IL; Harry Parr, principal and c0-founder at Bompas & Parr Studio; and Omar Sosa, founder of Apartamento Magazine—selected the recipient of the precious Pritzkerpumpkin and recognized additional firms with a number of Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions). Our purulent, profane public also cast their ballots to nominate the People’s Pumpkin.

Awards

Pritzkerpumpkin – Alloy (Allium), for their smoking jack-0-lantern-in-the-box 
People’s Pumpkin – SITU (SitooOooOoOooOoo), for their dehydrated pumpkin strands inspired by Newton’s Cenotaph

Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions)

Hell TechEnnead Architects (Jack-o-Tects), for their hellish, hellraiser-esque drawing machine
Miserable Mess – Rafael Viñoly Architects (rough-hell sin-ñoly architects), for A Risk in Resin, their incomplete attempt at casting a resin pumpkin
Most PoeticPractice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU (Practice for Anarchy and Upheaval | OW), for Di-vine, an ode to the life-giving vine
Most ProfoundDavis Brody Bond (Demons, Bones, and Blood), for Atlas Hugged, a humble call, in pumpkin form, for tolerance
Pretentioulicious SITU (SitooOooOoOooOoo), for their dehydrated pumpkin strands inspired by Newton’s Cenotaph
The Totem WEISS/MANFREDI (frights/manfreaky), for their Inception-inspired pumpkin-within-a-pumpkin-within-a-pumpkin

Other teams who showed off their pumpkin carving skills included:

Architecture Research Office (Pumpkin Research Office), with a curvy pumpkin pavilion
Center for Architecture (Lina Boo Bardis), with a jack-o-lantern-headed sculpture of the Brazilian architect, inspired by this year’s Archtober brand identity
Dattner Architects (Datt-s My Pumpkin Part-ner)
, with a pumpkin brick tower
Henning Larsen (Spooky Larsen), with a pumpkin version of the Hangzhou Opera House
HWKN (sHocKN’), with their inverted pumpkin turned interior space
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF Carvers), with a Hudson Yards-inspired pumpkin skyscraper
P.R.O. – Peterson Rich Office (P.R.O. – Pestilent Rich Ogres), with their minimalist pumpkin
REX (t-REX), with their budget-constrained, value-engineered jack-o-lantern
ROGERS PARTNERS (Roguish Phantoms), with pumpkins inspired by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s ducks and decorated sheds
SCAPE (hellSCAPE), with their collapsing pumpkin portrait, exploring the ephemerality of life
Small Stuff (small indeterminate matter), with a video experiment in pumpkin empathy
SOFTlab (SOFThead labORATORIUM), with a reflective optical illusion pumpkin
TEN Arquitectos (Teninites), with Discotecture, proving that architects like to party

We congratulate our winners and thank all participating firms for a wonderful evening!