Pumpkitecture! Architectural Pumpkin Carving Competition

Start your Halloween festivities at the Center for Architecture’s seventh annual Pumpkitecture competition, organized in collaboration with the 15th annual fall festival, Archtober 2025: Shared Spaces. New York City-based design firms will go gourd to gourd to once again compete for the Pritzkerpumpkin. Who will squash the competition? What firm will succeed in summoning the Brutal ghost of Marcel Booeuer or invoking the spirit of Michael Gravesyard? Will the Crowned Curibita be inspired by Frank-o-Lloyd Wright’s Guggengourd? See for yourself at Pumpkitecture!

This year the Archtober festival theme Shared Spaces isn’t just a theme—it’s a design brief. We're asking carvers to create joyous pumpkin public places and spaces! What does the future of public space look like in a gourd-gous city? How can architects and planners connect communities like the webs of squash innards? Treat your pumpkin like a façade, a plaza, or gathering space that brings us together. 

Participating Firms:
ARO
Bravo, Inc.
DLR Group
MdeAS
Once-Future Office
SCAPE
Shakespeare Gordon Studio
SITU
S9 Architecture

Additional firms to be announced!

Jury:
Alvaro Alcocer, Co-founder, Head Hi
Yuri Birchwood-Fuentes, AIA, Architect, NYC Department of Design and Construction
Alex Costas, Head of Recruitment, Onboarding & Relationship Management, Bloomberg 
Xiaoxiao Guo, Exhibition Designer 
Marissa Martonyi, Design Director, Museum of the City of New York 

Come witness architects live-carve extraordinary structures and vote for the People’s Pumpkin. The carving will commence at 6:15 and run through 7:30. The competing architecture and design firms will briefly defend their designs, after which jurors will deliberate and pick the winning pumpkin. Enjoy spooky snacks and libations while you watch the competition!

Are you part of an architecture or design firm that would like to participate in this year's competition? Register your firm here.