Architecture Center’s Gingerbread Build-Off a sweet holiday retreat for teams of builders
A team of Thomas Printworks employees spent four months designing and re-creating a gingerbread interpretation of “Gingerassic Park.”
After winning Architecture Center Houston’s Gingerbread Build-Off four times, the team’s barn, complete with a corrugated tin roof made from lasagne and spray painted silver and a gumdrop pig swimming in chocolate pudding, came up short last year.
One of its best works, team member Ed Stevelman, 64, said, but they went home empty-handed.
“The winner was a white box,” he said. “A literal white box of gingerbread covered in fondant. We’re in it to win it.”
In exchange for a $125 registration fee, 35 teams competed at the ninth annual event at Hermann Square on Saturday for the coveted gingerbread man trophies, including “Grand Prix de Show” and “Public Favorite” — plus bragging rights and a twopound, chocolate-dipped peppermint log from local confectioner Candylicious.
“The event is really about raising awareness of Architecture Center Houston and having fun,” said Mat Wolff, the center’s assistant director.
The center’s new offices on Commerce Street, which also house the American Institute of Architects’ Houston chapter, sit across the street from Buffalo Bayou and flooded during Hurricane Harvey — just weeks before the state-of-the-art flood mitigation system was due to be completed. The contest offered some much-needed relief.
“It’s really a high point for members,” Wolff said. “We have members whose homes or offices flooded, and they get to bring their kids and come out and have a great time. We’re not slowing down.”
AIA provided basic building materials, and several teams sculpted Houston landmarks from sweets, pastries, even fruits and vegetables when needed for the “Houstoncentric” category.
The new prize was conceived after a hectic year for Houston — following Hurricane Harvey’s destruction, the Astros’ victorious redemption and Thursday’s once-in-a-decade snowfall, Wolff said the spirit of the city lent itself to it.
“This is actually the first year in a while that no one is doing the Waterwall,” he said.
Architecture and interior design firm Huitt Zollars AdvanceDesign scaled down their own blueprints for the celebrated Marriott Marquis Hotel, just blocks away from its edible miniature.
The hotel’s gleaming glass windows were crafted from Wrigley’s chewing gum and the famed Texasshaped lazy river from blue piping gel, complete with gummy bear people taking in the candy sun.
“Obviously, our firm is invested,” said Kyle Byrns, 27. “Having the design plans made it a little easier; we just scaled it down to gingerbread size.”
The gingerbread Marriott Marquis was second runner-up for Grand Prix and Goree Architect’s Minute Maid Park — which featured a gummy bear cut in half as Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and a diamond ring for Kate Upton — took home the award for Best Houston-centric confection.
Thomas Printworks’ months of planning, 15 sheets of gingerbread, bunches of lettuce and broccoli, candy bones laid in the icing like fossils and Pringles triceratops also paid off.
Gingerassic Park took home three prizes Saturday — Most Creative Interpretation of Materials, Grand Prix 1st Runner Up and Public Favorite.
“We’re happy; we’re exuberant,” team member Vanessa Poe, 34, said. “We’d thought about quitting.”
Gingerassic Park, the gingerbread Marriott Marquis, the sweet Minute Maid Park and the rest of the winners are on display at the Central Branch of the Houston Public Library until Friday.
“We feel redeemed,” Stevelman said.