One frightful Friday eve, on October 27, Pumpkitecture returned to the Center for Architecture... Capping the month of Archtober, the annual pumpkin carving competition brought together 10 New York City-based design firms as they went gourd to gourd to compete for the prized Pritzerpumpkin.

Although they were provided with a standard set of pumpkin carving tools, firms were encouraged to bring additional (non-flammable and non-hazardous) tools and materials. After an hour and 15 minutes of carving, our wicked jury picked from the patch of jack-o-lanterns and jack-o-lantern affiliates (see the People's Pumpkin) and selected competitor DLR Group as the winner of the evening’s highest honors. The jury also bestowed several Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions) upon the other wretched teams. Meanwhile, our dreadful audience arose from their graves to cast their ballots and nominated SO-IL as the winner of the People’s Pumpkin.
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Awards‍

Pritzkerpumpkin and – DLR Group (DLR Dream Team) for their Barbie Pumpkin Dream House
People’s Pumpkin – SO-IL (SO-IL Gourdsmiths) for their pumpkin purée vest set

‍Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions)‍

Mad Scientist Award – also to SO-IL
Slithering Award – Lutron (Fantastic Pumpkins and Where to Carve Them) for their Golden Snitch using the A20 bulb by Lutron‍
Heartwarmer Award – SGA Architects (Spooky Group Architecture) for their Central Park replica with the city's skyline

Other teams who joined the fun included:
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Bravo Inc (Brahoooohooo!) with a papier-mâchéd balloon structure
Mitchell Giurgola (Mitchell Ghoulgola) with a windowed, lit-from-within pumpkin
KLE Consulting (KLEeek!) with a monster face
New York Review of Architecture (All Good Rats Look Like a Bag of Pumpkins) with a sculpture of a rat perusing a copy of NYRA
Robert A.M. Stern Architects (Frankenstern) with an interpretation of the firm's logo
Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects (Spookyspeare, Gourdon, Vla-boo!) with a model of the Gowanus Canal and Ninth Street Bridge

Congratulations to the winners! Thank you to all the participating firms and our jury for a festive evening. Jury:‍

Michael Caton, AIA, Head of Technical Computing, Juno; Incoming 2024 AIANY Board Member
Camila Schaulsohn, Cofounder, Pumpkitecture
Ben Dreith, US Editor, Dezeen
Julia Gamolina, Founder, Madame Architecture; Associate Principal, Ennead Architects

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